Navigating Political Control and Resilience: Insights on Supply Chain Management in Authoritarian and Constrained Environments

This thesis I look at the impact of authoritarian control, misinformation, and ideological distortion on global supply chain management by drawing from literary texts, documentary films, policy reports, and seminars. My research focuses on how political narratives, war, nationalism, and propaganda disrupt the flow of goods, labor, and information in politically unstable or constrained economies. Analyzing North Korea’s propaganda machine, Turkey’s centralized economic policy, Poland’s nationalist rhetoric, and the war in Ukraine, I deepen my understanding of how regimes manipulate transparency and regulation to maintain control, often at the expense of trade stability and investor confidence. These distortions challenge traditional risk assessments and complicate strategic decision-making for global firms. Using supply chain management frameworks, I argue for a broader definition of resilience that incorporates political risk analysis, considers historical context, and prioritizes decentralized sourcing strategies. This project helped me connect my major to global citizenship by showing how logistics is not only about moving goods, but about understanding the deeper systems of power that shape those movements.