Mad World
A Geostrategy Survival Guide for Leaders
The old leadership playbook was written for a different world.
Geopolitics is no longer a background risk. It is becoming one of the defining forces shaping business, investment and leadership decisions.
In Mad World, leading geostrategist Tina Fordham provides a practical new playbook for understanding global change, building resilience and making better decisions in an increasingly unpredictable world.
Published 3 September 2026
Signed copies available from West End Lane Books.
Understanding the Geopolitics Supercycle is the new leadership superpower
For a generation of leaders whose careers were forged during Peak Globalisation and Pax Americana, the assumptions that shaped business strategy are being challenged.
Geopolitical volatility is no longer something that can simply be added to the risk register. It is increasingly shaping where businesses invest, how organisations operate and the decisions leaders make.
And the change is not temporary.
Tina Fordham calls this the Geopolitics Supercycle: a period in which the forces driving geopolitical disruption are multiplying while many of the traditional guardrails that once helped contain them are weakening.
Her research found a threefold increase in geopolitical risk events between 2010 and the end of 2024, spanning conflict, cyber attacks, climate change and economic warfare.
But Mad World is not a book about predicting the next crisis.
It is about learning how to think differently.
Drawing on more than 25 years advising senior business, investment, government and military leaders, Tina provides evidence-based frameworks and practical approaches to help decision-makers understand what matters, challenge outdated assumptions and turn geopolitical complexity into greater organisational resilience and competitive advantage.
Mad World is a guide to surviving – and thriving – in a world where the old rules can no longer be taken for granted.
The questions leaders are asking have changed.
They are no longer simply asking which risks they should be worrying about. They are asking how to think about a world that no longer corresponds to the strategies and playbooks of their professional careers.
A new playbook for a Mad World
Understand the Geopolitics Supercycle
Discover why today's geopolitical volatility is more than a series of isolated crises – and understand the forces driving a longer-term transformation of the global business and investment environment.
Separate signal from noise
Learn how to identify the developments that really matter, challenge conventional assumptions and make sense of geopolitical complexity without becoming overwhelmed by the news cycle.
Build your Political Quotient
Develop your PQ – Political Quotient: the ability to understand how political and geopolitical forces affect your organisation and incorporate them into better strategic decision-making.
Become a pragmatic optimist
Move beyond complacency and catastrophising. Mad World offers practical approaches for building resilience, recognising opportunity and making confident decisions in an uncertain world.
Navigate uncertainty with greater confidence
Mad World brings together more than 25 years of experience, original research and practical frameworks to help leaders make sense of a changing global operating environment.
AVAILABLE NOW
Signed copies available from West End Lane Books.
Praise for Mad World
“Tina was the first person I hired to help me convince trading floors that politics matters to markets, back when Wall Street didn’t want to hear it. A quarter century later, the world has made the case for us. Mad World is essential reading for anyone still catching up.”
“Fordham was ahead of her time – and today her insights are badly needed.”
“I have known Tina since we were both cutting our teeth on Wall Street... Mad World isn’t theory, it’s the product of decades in the room. Few people have earned the right to write this book. Tina is one of them.”
“Tina Fordham has long been an invaluable and distinctive voice in the debates over geopolitics.”
“Essential reading for anyone trying to lead, invest or govern in an age of geopolitical volatility.”
“A thoughtful and practical guide to understanding an increasingly complex – and seemingly mad – world.”
“I suspect that Tina’s ‘Political Quotient’ concept is here to stay.”
About the author
Tina Fordham is a leading geostrategist and advisor to Board and C-Suite executives, institutional investors, government and military leaders.
Wall Street's original Chief Global Political Analyst at Citi, Tina has spent more than 25 years at the intersection of geopolitics, markets and business decision-making. Before joining Citi, she created Eurasia Group's financial markets research business, and in 2022 founded her independent consultancy, Fordham Global Foresight.
Earlier in her career, Tina served as a Senior Advisor in the UK Prime Minister's Strategy Unit and at the United Nations.
She is an international advisory board member of the Cambridge Centre for Geopolitics and Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), her alma mater. Tina also hosts the London Stock Exchange's Navigator series and is a frequent commentator on CNN, Bloomberg, CNBC, the BBC and Monocle Radio.
Throughout her career, Tina has helped leaders understand how political and geopolitical change translates into real-world implications for their organisations – experience that forms the foundation of Mad World.
Mad World in the media
The Spear’s guide: new book releases
Featured in The Spear’s guide to notable new book releases that should be on your radar.
An Expert's Guide to Geopolitics
In a new interview with Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, Tina discusses the ideas behind Mad World, the Geopolitics Supercycle and why leaders need new ways of thinking about an increasingly uncertain global environment.
Can finance thrive through the Geopolitics Supercycle?
Tina explores what the Geopolitics Supercycle means for finance, as political uncertainty, shifting social expectations and market performance collide.
Mad World
A Geostrategy Survival Guide for Leaders
By Tina Fordham
Foreword by Gillian Tett
AVAILABLE NOW
Understand the forces reshaping the global operating environment – and develop the tools to lead through them.
Signed copies available from West End Lane Books.
Press & media
Media resources for Mad World
Journalists, producers, event organisers and media professionals can download the Mad World press kit, including the press release and promotional assets.
Download the press release and promotional assets
Press enquiries
For interviews, review copies and other press enquiries, please contact info@fordhamglobal.com
Published 3 September 2026 by Whitefox
To receive updates about Mad World, arrange a book event or for ordering information, contact info@fordhamglobal.com