Currency risk exists even without recessions overseas, though. Anytime you invest in an overseas stock, you have to exchange dollars into another currency. To get your money out, you have to change back into dollars. How much of that other money your dollar will buy and vice versa depends on the changing currency markets. They say that now is a good time to take a trip to Indonesia.
American dollars are worth much more there now, making travel cheap.
I'm not sure I'm ready to brave the flying bullets, though. Political risk and currency risk are related. When a government is unstable, the value of the money they're printing also becomes unstable. And when a country is having economic trouble and their currency is suffering, unrest will likely follow. After all, dissent most often comes on an empty stomach.