On Mehndi Taje
The world is no longer a market, it is a field of brutal forces and battle
The world in which businesses operate today is no longer a space of commercial fluidity but a field of geopolitical forcesan unstable and conflicting strategic jungle where power relations dominate. Crises are no longer isolated accidents, they have become the standard of the international system. Polycrises, megashocks, high-intensity surprises, economic wars, fragmentation of value chains, instrumentalization of trade and finance for geopolitical ends, assumed return of power relations: the global environment has hardened, suddenly and lastingly
In this context, continue to train Tunisian managers without geopolitical intelligence amounts to sending them into battle without a map, without a compass, without radar and without weapons. This is no longer an academic gap: it is a strategic error.
The major French and Anglo-Saxon business schools have understood this. They now integrate geopolitics at the heart of their programs to train « augmented managers with world intelligence » capable of evolving in an unstable, brutal, unpredictable and conflictual environment.
The question is therefore no longer should geopolitics be taught? more how much longer can Tunisia afford not to do so? It goes without saying that certain Tunisian business schools have integrated geopolitics modules and are not concerned.
The happy end of globalization: the manager facing the return of strategic violence
Happy, depoliticized, rational and linear globalization is dead. She gave way to a militarized globalizationpoliticized, fragmented and tossed around by the balance of power. States now use trade, standards, sanctions, currencies, logistics corridors and energy as weapons
Donald Trump’s decisions since 2025, generalized customs duties, imperial reindustrialization, assumed economic war, have marked the end of free trade as conceived after 1945. As summarized by Maurice Obstfeld, this is a “declaration of war on global trade”.
In this new world, the market is no longer neutral :
- A sea route can be blocked overnight (Red Sea);
- A value chain can be disrupted by a political decision, armed conflict, etc. ;
- An environmental standard can become a protectionist weapon;
- A distant war can explode costs, deadlines and margins.
Training managers without giving them the keys to understanding these dynamics amounts to confuse management and steeringaccounting and strategy, optimization and survival.
In this context, “ a manager who ignores geopolitics is no longer a decision-maker, he is a manager of illusions ».
The company is no longer above ground: it is on the geopolitical front line
For a long time, companies believed they could operate in a protected bubble, away from conflicts, power rivalries and geopolitical shocks. This illusion was shattered. Today, the company is an exposed playerdirectly impacted by the reconfiguration of the world and the brutal upheavals of a geopolitical and geoeconomic nature.
World Economic Forum reports now classify:
- The risk of armed conflict;
- Climate change;
- The geoeconomic confrontation;
- Misinformation;
- The fragmentation of societies.
as the main global risks to which companies are exposed. Thus, geopolitical risk is ranked first.
For Tunisia, these risks are not abstract:
- Extreme water stress;
- Logistical and energy dependence;
- Vulnerability to European industrial relocations;
- Migration and social pressure;
- Exposure to rivalries in the Maghreb, the Mediterranean and the African Sahel and reconfiguration of Europe in the process of marginalization.
In this context, not integrating geopolitics into managerial training amounts to institutionalizing a kind of blindness.
« In a world of strategic predators, geopolitical ignorance turns business into prey.”
What French and Anglo-Saxon business schools have understood and that Tunisia can no longer ignore
The great French and Anglo-Saxon schools have experienced a paradigm shift: geopolitics is no longer a cultural supplement, but a central strategic competence. Skema, HEC, ESCP and Sciences Po have developed schools, chairs and modules dedicated to global risks, balance of power and new conflicts, in short to geopolitics and geoeconomics.
For what ?
Because companies are now demanding profiles capable of:
- Read weak signals;
- Understand the world in all its complexity and the interplay of actors;
- Anticipate disruptions;
- Arbitrate under uncertainty;
- Transform risk into competitive advantage and seize opportunities.
These schools train augmented managersequipped with a intelligence of the worldable to navigate a brutal and unpredictable environment
It is therefore appropriate to ask ourselves: “ why train 21st century managersth century with 20th century toolsth ? ».
The chair of geopolitics: a strategic lever, not an academic luxury
Create a chair of geopolitics and strategic foresight in a Tunisian business school is neither a fashion effect nor an intellectual luxury. It’s a high return strategic investment.
Such a chair would allow:
- To anchor a culture of anticipation and intelligence of situations;
- To train decision-makers capable of thinking in the long term to act better today;
- To connect Tunisian business to global dynamics of a geopolitical and geoeconomic nature;
- To strengthen international academic attractiveness;
- To position Tunisia as a regional intellectual hub.
The concepts of geopolitical radar and sonaralready promoted by the Davos Forum and by the major consulting firms, must become structuring educational tools.
In this context, “ a business school without geopolitics trains managers; a business school with geopolitics trains strategists ».
Understand or suffer: the choice of Tunisian business schools
We have entered a world of geopolitical Darwinismwhere only those who understand the true rules of the game and distinguish the structural from the cyclical masked by generalized information warfare survive. Tunisia, located at the crossroads of the Middle East, Europe and Africa, three areas undergoing profound restructuring, has no room for error.
Tunisian business schools bear a historic responsibility:
- Continue to produce technically competent but strategically “myopic” managers;
- Or train a generation of lucid, agile decision-makers, capable of anticipating and maneuvering through the storm to ward off risks and seize opportunities.
In the world to come, geopolitics will not be an educational option. It will be the border between those who decide and those who suffer.
Conclusion
Training managers without geopolitical intelligence in the emerging world is no longer an academic insufficiency: it is a strategic error. Happy globalization has given way to a universe or chessboard of power struggles, brutal ruptures and systemic shocks where the market is no longer a neutral space but a field of confrontation. In this context, the business school that persists in ignoring geopolitics condemns its graduates to endure a world they do not understand.
Conversely, joining a chair or structured training in geopolitics means transforming the school into a factory of lucid decision-makers, capable of reading the fault lines of the world, of anticipating ruptures and opportunities and of deciding under uncertainty. This means increasing the real employability of graduates, strengthening the academic attractiveness of the institution and placing the school at the heart of strategic dialogue with businesses and public decision-makers. It is not a cost: it is an investment with a high intellectual, reputational and strategic return.
In a world of polycrises and permanent economic war, geopolitics is no longer a general culture supplement; she became a central managerial skill. The business schools that understand this will train the leaders of tomorrow. The others will train yesterday’s managers.
“A business school that teaches geopolitics no longer follows the market: it understands it”;
“Training managers without geopolitics means training decision-makers above ground; teaching it means anchoring the school in reality and deciphering complexity”;
“Geopolitics transforms a business school into a strategy school”;
“Where others teach tools, geopolitics teaches the world”;
“A chair of geopolitics is a marker of intellectual excellence, attractiveness and strategic maturity.”
BIO EXPRESS
Mehdi Taje – Director of Global Prospect Intelligence and Senior expert in geopolitical analysis and forecasting and anticipation methodologies
This article is a column, written by an author outside the newspaper and whose point of view does not commit the editorial staff.
