Stratfor

The origin of Stratfor can be traced to the Center for Geopolitical Studies (CGPS) at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. There, professors George Friedman and Leonard Hochberg built a team that researched geopolitics, built wargaming simulations, and advised companies on geopolitical risks and opportunities.

The company was founded in 1996 and named Strategic Forecasting (Stratfor) by lead analyst Matthew S. Baker. It was moved to Austin in August 1997 with seven members of the CGPS team who served as part of the co-founding team along with founder George Friedman.

George served as the head of analysis for the organization, and the business was led by several CEOs in the late 1990s and early 2000s as it refined its offerings. Chip Harmon was appointed president in February 2018.

Stratfor was acquired by RANE in 2020.

Stratfor clients have included academic institutions, investment firms, and large corporations such as Lockheed Martin, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, the Coca-Cola Company, and Dow Chemical Company. Many of Stratfor's operatives previously worked for the U.S. government.

Media coverage of their ideas about the 1998 bombing of Iraq brought Stratfor into the public eye. At this time, the company had about twenty employees. By 2008 they were up to 40 full-time employees in Austin. 2016 saw the number rise to about 100, three-quarters of whom were based in Austin. Stratfor often hired and trained interns from the nearby University of Texas.

Stratfor analysts pay for information, but also use open source information to predict where global crises will arise. Stratfor also obtains information by way of personal networks. Fred Burton indicated in leaked emails that he maintained contact with his trusted former CIA sources as a source of information, and that he was aware of the sealed indictment against Julian Assange in 2011. Barron's Jonathan Laing has called Stratfor founder George Friedman "one of our favorite experts on geopolitics," saying, "His judgments tend to be more nuanced and long-term than those of the press or Wall Street." More recently, The Atlantic's James Fallows referenced a Stratfor article on U.S. strategy in Iraq and Ukraine, following outbreaks of turmoil in those regions.

Friedman resigned from the company in 2015 to launch a new company, Geopolitical Futures.