Article
Introduction: Political Risk and Overview
Reports of Overseas Private Investment Corporation Determinations
(2011)
Abstract
The rise of FDI is accompanied by an increasingly stronger international investment regime, enforced by an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism. Still, MNEs are becoming increasingly concerned about political risk in host countries. Governments and some multilateral organizations offer tools to mitigate risk such as political risk insurance. For example, the United States Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) protects against most significant types of events: (i) inconvertibility of funds; (ii) expropriation; (ii) political violence; (iv) losses caused by material changes in project agreements unilaterally imposed by the host state; and (v) terrorism. Understanding OPIC’s claims determinations is of value to outward investors seeking OPIC insurance, negotiators of investment agreements and to investment arbitration tribunals deciding investment treaty disputes. Furthermore, a rising awareness of political risk may lead to a closer analysis of the relationship between investor arbitration, investment agreements and investment insurance in the frame of investment arbitrations and in the negotiation of investments themselves.
Disciplines
Publication Date
2011
Citation Information
Mark Kantor, Michael D. Nolan and Karl P. Sauvant, “Introduction: Political Risk and Overviews,” in Mark Kantor, Michael D. Nolan and Karl P. Sauvant, eds., Reports of Overseas Private Investment Corporation Determinations (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), vol. 1, pp. xiii-xlix