Journal of African Development

Between 2022 and 2026, global supply chains faced unprecedented simultaneous stress from overlapping geopolitical conflicts. The Russia–Ukraine war, the Gaza–Israel conflict and associated Red Sea crisis, broader Middle East escalations including the 2025 Iran–Israel confrontation, and the ongoing US–China technology and trade war have collectively created systemic, multi-front vulnerabilities with no historical precedent. This paper presents a systematic narrative review that synthesizes evidence across four interlocking disruption theatres to identify shared disruption mechanisms, sectoral impacts, and adaptive responses at organizational and policy levels. Drawing on peer-reviewed literature, industry reports, and empirical developments from 2025–2026, we conducted thematic analysis across the four conflict theatres. Disruption mechanisms were inductively coded and mapped against sectoral and regional impact data.

Five persistent disruption mechanisms were identified: maritime chokepoint vulnerability, sanctions-driven financial fragmentation, critical material concentration, food supply chain weaponization, and compound crisis amplification. Differential impacts were observed across sectors and regions. Adaptive strategies documented include supply diversification, nearshoring, friend-shoring, strategic inventory buffering, ESG-enabled resilience, and accelerated digitalization. Evidence points toward permanent structural reconfiguration of global trade networks, progressive economic bloc fragmentation, and an enduring elevation in supply chain risk premiums. This review proposes a conceptual framework for multi-conflict supply chain vulnerability and highlights priority research gaps, contributing foundational insight for scholars and practitioners navigating an era of enduring geopolitical fragmentation..