The authors review six major systemic risks facing modern societies: geopolitical risks, global meteorological disaster risks, regional environmental risks, global supply chain risks, systemic financial risks, and technology-mediated societal and institutional risks. They show how these risks increasingly interact across political, economic, environmental, technological, and social systems, allowing disruptions in one domain to generate cascading and compounding effects in others. The paper highlights advances in interdisciplinary analysis, network modelling, big data, artificial intelligence, system dynamics, and scenario simulation for understanding these complex risks. It calls for greater attention to cross-risk transmission, adaptive risk management, and international cooperation, moving beyond siloed, single-risk perspectives to strengthen societal resilience against cascading disruptions.
Six Major Risks in Modern Society: Research Progress and Future Directions
Author(s)
Qi Zhang, Yi Hu and Shouyang Wang
Publication Date
12 August 2026
Publisher
Risk Science 2
DOI / URL
Resource Type
Academic Journal Article
Systems Addressed
Climate • Economy • Geopolitics and International Security • Technology
Resource Theme
Catastrophic and Existential Risk