ISL Workshop

Background

The ISL community has been meeting annually in a pre-conference workshop to discuss, debate, and develop understanding about current, pervasive, and future Supply Chain (SC) issues. These workshops have traditionally involved both academics and practitioners, with the aim to develop pragmatic results that align theory and practice.

Contextualising Supply Chain Resilience under Geopolitical Disruptions

30th International Symposium on Logistics, RMIT, Hanoi, Vietnam

Sunday, 5th July 2026 (14:30 – 17:00 hrs)

Venue: RMIT Hanoi campus, 1.3.A005

Prof. Kulwant S Pawar, Prof Nachiappan Subramanian,

Prof Vinh Thai, and Dr Hung Nguyen

Background

The ISL community has been meeting annually in a pre-conference workshop to discuss, debate, and develop understanding about current, pervasive, and future Supply Chain (SC) issues. These workshops have traditionally involved both academics and practitioners, with the aim to develop pragmatic results that align theory and practice. The most recent workshops in Cork (2022), Enschede (2023), Bangkok (2024), Wiesbaden (2025) have effectively addressed a wide range of issues with the discussion moving towards resilience, circularity, regenerative SCs under uncertain and evolving circumstances in recent years. This workshop will continue this stream of discussion.

Description and Purpose of the Workshop

Global disruptions are becoming increasingly common, whether due to conflicts such as the Russia-Ukraine, Israel-Palestine and USA-Iran disputes or trade wars such as the USA-China and the recent imposition of trade tariffs by the USA administration on various countries that trade with the US. Concurrently, climate change is impacting global trade flows. The relationships between trading partners are extremely fragile and unstable. Consequently, these global geopolitical disruptions, such as the USA’s tariffs on imports, are causing major uncertainties in global supply chains and impacting non-USA supply chains. These disruptions are causing significant challenges for supply chain planners, decision-makers and stakeholders. Various studies show that there are several gaps in the existing provision, these include,

  • Understanding of firm-level strategy selection execution mechanisms and the temporal sequencing of strategies across disruption phases
  • The interaction between technology and geopolitical strategy
  • The effects of friendshoring on overall resilience versus complexity trade-offs
  • The integration of organisational factors such as leadership and capabilities into resilience models
  • The timing and rationale behind firms choosing specific ambidexterity modes

Therefore, it is crucial to examine the resilience capabilities applied in the current context and strategies deployed by suppliers to maintain stability. This year’s workshop proposes to explore the multifaceted challenges and strategies associated with resilience in terms of tools and mechanisms for conceptualising short-term and long-term resilience strategies in the context of complex geopolitical disruptions. In essence, how do we contextualise Supply Chain Resilience under Geopolitical Disruptions?

Participants will have the opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogues with both academics and practitioners, fostering a collaborative environment to address pressing issues related to supply chain disruption and resilience.

The workshop will feature guest speakers from academia and business who will provide practical examples and insights. The workshop will be facilitated, and discussions are likely to centre around four key themes.

  • Understanding and classifying the type and nature of disruptions
  • Impact of disruptions on supply chains (short-medium-long term)
  • Type of tools, mechanisms and strategies adopted to mitigate the effects on supply chain operations
  • Development of a contextualisation framework or theory

Outline

The workshop will follow the approximate timetable below:

14:30 – 15:00 Networking, Coffee & Tea

15:00 – 15:30 Welcome, brief introduction and invited contributions

15:30 – 17:00 Workshop group work & concluding discussion

17:30 – Conference Reception (Innovation Hub)