ITIC UK 2026 | Managing risk amid geopolitical conflict

The ITIJ team are reporting from ITIC UK in Brighton this week (29–30 April 2026), sharing the discussions that take place at the conference. Read all reports.

Graeme Dean, Founder and CEO, Hotspot Cover

Dean began by highlighting that both the ongoing Russia–Ukraine conflict and the US/Israel–Iran war have demonstrated how the impact of conflict can spill over into the surrounding region and the world as a whole.

“Conflict is no longer contained – it spreads across routes, hubs, and entire regions,” he said. “It affects different areas, it affects shipping, it affects aviation, it affects traveller movements. And as an organisation it’s no longer just about where you’re travelling to, but also where you’re travelling through.”

He added that, beyond this, the disruption caused by such conflicts, to both insurers and travel risk management firms, could potentially last “many, many years”.

Dean also noted that travel advisories should not be used as a foundation for business travel decisions. He explained that such advisories were typically designed to advise leisure travellers, not to support operational risk management, and that while travelling against such advice might invalidate standard insurance policies, ultimately organisations “still need to move people”.

This reality is especially true for organisations providing essential work or support to major projects, as well as for media or non-government organisations (NGOs) that need to actively reach zones of crisis. Many travellers may also transit through regions such as the Middle East due to their significance as a transit hub.

Dean also explained how standard travel insurance policies could break down due to a mixture of inflexibility and a lack of nuance.

Beyond being too closely tied to official travel advisories, he argued that many policies had a lack of real response capabilities, and are overly prone to generalising the safety of whole regions based on the risk of visiting specific areas.

“Not all high risk is equal,” Dean argued. For example: “In Ukraine, there’s a big difference between the front line and the west of the country, such as in Kyiv or Lviv. Likewise, in Syria, Damascus is quite safe at the moment, but there are other places that are a bit more hairy.”

To address these issues, Dean concluded by outlining a set of suggestions for how the insurance industry could ensure better coverage for travellers. He advised integrating specialist underwriting, dynamic alerts, and pre-trip risk briefings into coverage, while offering extensive assistance as a standard part of product, including solid “ground-level capabilities”.

He also suggested that policymaking should more clearly consider the impact of potential war spillover, scrutinise terrorism proximity on a local level, and be more adaptable in the event of a travel advisory change mid-journey.

Innes Dundas, Security Network Manager, Crisis24

Dundas focused on the ongoing war between the US and Israel and Iran, which has caused significant risks to travellers in the Middle East, and his company’s response to it.

“While it was one conflict, each day was different,” he explained, noting that the situation on the ground rapidly evolved between the declaration of war on 28 February, and the start of the ceasefire in early April.

During that period, Crisis24 responded to a total of 414 requests in the region, including 103 security evacuations and 10 medical assistance cases.

This involved evacuating a total of over 2,000 people from 12 countries, and the chartering of three wide-body aircraft.

The scale of the response needed a high level of rapid support – Dundas noted that “as a result of massive demand, our vendors experienced cash flow problems”, requiring Crisis24 to issue US$3.5 million in drawdown funds, with payment upfront or within 24 hours. The company also implemented surge capacity, and deployed internal teams to a number of countries in the region, such as Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Armenia.

Additionally, due to the complexity of the situation and the need to provide reassurance to clients, Dundas explained that his company issued regular, “comprehensive reports” designed to ensure stakeholders understood what was going on.

Dundas also spoke about the concept of conflict spillover and the broader effects of the war in Iran – he explained that when analysing the impact of the war on international travellers and expats, clients could be divided into two categories: in-country, and global travellers.

In the former category – those living in the Middle East at the time the conflict began – key issues reported included:

• Threats to personal safety
• Disrupted everyday life
• Disrupted business operations and opportunities
• Flight disruption
• Accommodation disruption
• Unexpected costs
• Damage to mental health and general stress.

For global travellers – those who are not in the region where the conflict is taking place, but who are nevertheless impacted by its effects – key issues include:

• Flight disruption and other associated costs
• Flight rerouting
• Delays in airline assistance
• Knock-on effects.

Dundas concluded by summarising what duty-of-care obligations and strategies organisations can implement to ensure the safety of their employees, noting that it was important to know your workforce, pick the right staff, balance risk with mitigation, ensure decision-making is clear, and make sure that communication infrastructure and contingency planning are well organised.