The political risk environment is supportive of business, if often complicated and bureaucratic. Nonetheless, the outgoing administration retains considerable latitude to implement a range of domestic and foreign policies prior to the inauguration on 20 January 2021. Prospective measures could trigger domestic social unrest, generate new regulatory and compliance risks, or increase conflict risks to US companies operating abroad. The Trump administration is now cooperating with the presidential transition process, but may still seek to obstruct or otherwise impede the incoming administration. After the inauguration, companies are likely to face a degree of regulatory whiplash as the Biden administration moves to terminate, reverse, or modify Trump-era regulation.

A divided federal government promotes political risks by impeding even routine legislation. However, many of the most significant political and regulatory issues for businesses operating at the state and local levels.

Civil society is active, sophisticated, and influential, occasionally posing reputational and operational threats to business through the scrutiny of certain activities. Vested interests are also influential at all levels of policymaking.

Foreign policy has become markedly more nationalistic under President Donald Trump, undermining many international trades and security relationships and posing new political risks to cross-border trade and investment. The administration’s confrontational posture towards China continues to pose political and regulatory risks to businesses, while national security challenges in Iran, Syria, Venezuela, and North Korea remain unsolved.

In addition, the US and China remain on a long-term trajectory towards strategic competition. Competition for control of emerging technologies –such as 5G, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biotechnology – will continue to pose legal, regulatory, operational, and reputational risks to multinational businesses operating in both countries.

USA is considered a Full Democracy in the 2020 Democracy Index, developed by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), where the country ranks 25 out of 167 countries scored.

The country ranks 17 at the Human Development Index developed by the United Nations Development Programme.

The US is generally a benign and accommodating environment for business, including foreign investment. However, the COVID-19 crisis imposed immediate and severe operational challenges to companies throughout the US as a result of mandatory closures and supply chain disruptions (both domestically and abroad). Even as US states begin to reopen, both “essential” and “non-essential” sectors are likely to face continued operational disruption, including as a result of restrictions re-imposed to suppress new outbreaks. US cities, struggling to cope with the COVID-19-virus outbreak, face additional fiscal and bureaucratic difficulties conducting normal operations. Businesses needing licenses or other city services will face delays and a higher prospect of contract cancellation or modification.

The availability and quality of infrastructure is generally sufficient but also requires considerable investment in maintenance and expansion. The labour market is large and flexible but faces potential medium-to-long term skill and availability deficits, as a result of an aging workforce and potential restrictions on immigration. Labour strikes around minimum wage levels and labor conditions are limited. Environmentalist movements remain active.

Routine corruption is not a major operational challenge for companies operating in the US. However, there is growing concern about ethical lapses by public figures across the political spectrum, conflicts of interest, the influence of money and access over public policy, and the erosion of political checks and balances. The US was downgraded in Transparency International’s 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) over such concerns.

The quality of medical and hospital facilities, modes of transportation, highways, and hotels throughout the country is high.

Overall, the USA ranks 6 out of 190 countries scored at the 2020 Doing Business Index by the World Bank and 23 out of 198 at the 2020 Corruption Perception Index by the Transparency International Organization.

COVID-19 has not dramatically or durably altered security risks to business, which remain relatively benign in most locations. Despite a spike in commercial burglary and some other targeted crimes during COVID-19 lockdowns, common violent and property crime remain near historic lows nationwide and in many major urban areas. Transnational and domestic terrorism – chiefly by Islamist and right-wing extremists – are persistent, nationwide, but infrequent security threats. While environmental, animal rights, indigenous rights and anti-capitalist movements are active across the US, they largely employ nonviolent, if disruptive, protest methods – and COVID-19 social distancing has temporarily disrupted many physical protest movements. Violent social unrest driven by controversial police actions or confrontations between right and left-wing activists has risen this year, although it still remains uncommon and poses a mainly incidental threat to business.

The risk of sustained unrest is heightened. The disproportionate impact of the COVID-19-virus outbreak on poor and ethnic minority communities will act to enhance protests sparked by police brutality or racist incidents. Additionally, the risk of looting and arson occurring in tandem with peaceful protests has become more likely with the involvement of individuals and groups with non-political motivations. An aggressive response by the police or military forces to end protests are likely to inspire larger and sustained demonstrations. Protests against COVID-19 mitigation measures are likely to continue in states that are slower to lift business restrictions; congregation near government offices is likely.

Violent crime is higher than other OECD countries, but rates have declined over the five- and 10-year trend. FBI data show violent crime decreased by 3.1% in the first six months of 2019 compared with 2018, including murders falling by 3.9%. Property crimes also declined over this period, although there are increasing incidents of groups and individuals looting, burning, and vandalizing property near otherwise peaceful protests, as seen in the June 2020 riots in several US cities. Hate crimes motivated by racial, gender, gender identity, religious, and other group-based biases are significant. Firearms are a pervasive component of criminal activity. Public mass-shooting rates increased in 2019 over the previous five-year average.

Lone-actor terrorist attacks inspired by the Islamic State or Al-Qaeda pose risks. Attacks likely involve firearms or improvised explosive devices as seen in the 2016 mass shooting in Orlando and in the September 2016 bombings in New York. Attacks could also involve the use of vehicles, as seen in the 2016 and 2017 attacks in Columbus (Ohio) and New York City respectively. Right-wing terrorists pose a threat to Jewish, Muslim, African American, Latino, and LGBT assets and individuals, with a number of high-profile attacks in 2019. Attacks by environmental and animal rights activists are relatively infrequent. Targeted property damage, including looting, arson, and vandalism, by anti-institutionalists, are increasingly likely surrounding protests.

The risk of a kinetic war on US soil remains quite remote, with an extremely modest threat of a nuclear confrontation with North Korea. Although the threat dissipated following US-North Korean summits in 2018 in Singapore and 2019 in Vietnam, North Korea’s destruction of its Inter-Korean Liaison Office in June 2020 increases the risk of confrontation. Additionally, the US has a number of ongoing military engagements abroad, such as in Afghanistan, Syria, and Somalia. President Trump's continued animosity towards the Iranian nuclear agreement also raises the prospect of missile strikes against nuclear facilities.

Overall, the USA ranks 121 out of 163 within the 2020 Global Peace Index by the Institute for Economics and Peace.

The USA is currently among the most cyber-attacked countries in the world, ranked the 4th most cyber-attacked countries according to Kaspersky cyber threat map.

No vaccinations are required to enter the country.

The USA ranks 1st out of 195 within the 2019 Global Health Security Index, a project of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (JHU), developed with The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

The climate of the United States varies considerably by region.

The northwest of the country experiences an oceanic climate with relatively stable temperatures throughout the year, rainy winters, and sunny summers. In the southwest, winters are mild and summers hot and dry. In the Rocky Mountain region the climate is continental (harsh winters and very hot and dry summers). In the northeast and Midwest, summers are hot and winters are very cold, even harsh. In the southeast (from Florida to Louisiana), winter is mild and dry and summer is hot and humid with a high risk of hurricanes in the late summer.

Regarding natural disasters, their risk cannot be underestimated.

Seismic activity is strong along the San Andreas Fault (southwest); although no major earthquake (with a magnitude equal to or greater than 8.0) has struck the area in over a century (since the San Francisco earthquake of 1906), the risk is still present. On August 24, 2014, a 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck northern California (epicenter south of Napa); one death and nearly 200 injuries were reported, as were substantial damages. There is also the risk of earthquakes along the Cascadia subduction zone, located off the coast of the Pacific North West.

The West Coast is vulnerable to the risk of a tsunami in the event of a maritime earthquake.

The entire east of the country is prone to flooding and hurricanes along the coast (particularly in the southeast, e.g. Florida and Louisiana). Hurricane season in the North Atlantic extends from June 1 to November 30, with a peak period typically occurring in August-September. Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast ‒ notably the city of New Orleans ‒ in August 2005, leaving some 1800 dead and causing nearly USD 100 billion in damages. More recently, in August 2011, Hurricane Irene swept up the East Coast, leaving 30 dead and USD 1 billion worth of damage in its wake, as well as significant travel disruptions (several thousand flights canceled; 350,000 residents evacuated from their homes in New York state). Historic flooding in Louisiana prompted by torrential rains in August 2016 left 13 dead.

Violent thunderstorms accompanied by often-deadly tornadoes regularly hit the southern and central regions of the country in the summer and fall. Tornado season typically extends from March through July. The region of the country most at risk, the so-called Tornado Alley, includes the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota. However, the entire area east of the Rocky Mountains (including the Great Plains, Midwest, Mississippi Valley, and southeast) is vulnerable to tornadoes and severe summer storms, which often strike in the afternoon or evening. Each year, some 1200 tornadoes are reported nationwide.

Wildfires are common in the summer months, particularly in the west of the country. California is currently in its fifth year of drought, making the region particularly susceptible to wildfires (nearly 5000 in 2016 as of mid-September).