A special episode exploring the rise of active assailant risk and the growing demand for data-driven underwriting in a rapidly evolving threat landscape. Joshua Watson, senior underwriter, war and terrorism, North America, at Markel International, joins Gamze Tekin, senior product owner at Concirrus, to examine how this peril has moved to the forefront of crisis management and political violence insurance.

The discussion explores what makes active assailant risk distinct, from its frequency characteristics to its human and financial impact. Active assailant is a peril on the rise, with protection gaps facing corporate buyers, near-daily incidents taking place, and changing US state regulation on workplace violence.

Conversation turns to the underwriting challenges for a peril that is far removed from physical damage focus of most PV perils. Additional challenges include managing aggregation and portfolio exposure, and the limits of traditional data when assessing fast-moving, unpredictable threats.

The final section focuses on closing the data gap, from real-time risk visibility to AI-enabled underwriting tools designed to support better decision-making in complex scenarios. With attacks increasing, particularly in the US, this episode unpacks why active assailant risk is becoming one of the most pressing and technically challenging areas in specialty insurance today.

War, political violence and terrorism demand close coordination between underwriting and claims teams – particularly when geopolitical crises escalate quickly. In this special episode, Sarah Howell, head of first party claims, and Jennie Beard, underwriting manager, war and terrorism, Liberty Specialty Markets, discuss how collaboration works in practice, drawing on experience managing global a portfolio and responding to major loss events. The conversation explores lessons learned from the Russia-Ukraine war, how insurers are adapting processes, the use of open-source intelligence for loss adjusting, and the creation of a Lloyd’s Market Association claims coordination group.

The rapidly evolving Middle East crisis forms the start of this conversation with James Esdaile, executive chairman of BPL, examining the immediate implications for insurance markets since the US and Israel began military operations against Iran on Saturday. The interview that follows explores the evolution of credit and political risk insurance (CPRI) and standalone political risk insurance (PRI), different products typically for different buyers with different motivations. Esdaile reflects on his nearly three decades in the market, from joining BPL as a graduate trainee and rising to the top of the dedicated CPRI/PRI insurance broker. Along the way, the conversation touches on geopolitical drivers, expropriation risk, resource nationalism, and Venezuela as another political risk crisis case study to watch.