Polycrisis Resource Library

The Polycrisis Resource Library is a growing collection of media that help to understand polycrisis, develop strategies to address polycrisis, and build a field of polycrisis analysis.

A Systemic Risk Assessment Methodological Framework for the Global Polycrisis

August 14, 2025

Ajay Gambhir, Michael J. Albert, Sylvanus S. P. Doe, Jonathan F. Donges, Nadim Farajalla, Leandro L. Giatti, Haripriya Gundimeda, Sarah Hendel-Blackford, Thomas Homer-Dixon, Daniel Hoyer, Sumaya Adan, David Jacome-Polit, Luke Kemp, David Korowicz, Zora Kovacic, Jan Kwakkel, Laurie Laybourn, Robert Lempert, Ayan Mahamoud, Tom H. Oliver, Ivana E. Pavkova, Joseph Ponnoly, Vishwas Satgar, Megan Shipman, Jana Sillmann, Nick Silver, Samuel Stevenson & Ruth Richardson

The paper examines two historical global food–energy crises, highlighting the limitations of traditional risk management approaches in addressing today’s complex and interconnected global risks. The authors propose a methodological framework…

New Challenge for Risk Governance: Polycrisis and Systemic Risk

August 12, 2025

Ortwin Renn

The author highlights the rise of polycrises, where interconnected challenges, such as the pandemic, climate change, wars, food insecurity, and inflation, mutually amplify one another. He argues that the traditional…

Dimensional characterization and Pathway Modeling for Catastrophic AI Risks

August 8, 2025

Ze Shen Chin

This paper examines catastrophic AI risks using a framework that combines seven risk dimensions: intent, competency, entity, polarity, linearity, reach, and order, along with risk pathway modelling to link hazards…

Echoes of Uncertainty: Reimagining Complexity of Global Risks in the Shadow of the Russian–Ukrainian Conflict

August 5, 2025

Mateusz Błaszczyk and Piotr Pieńkowski

The authors explore risk perceptions in Ukraine and Poland in the context of the ongoing Russian–Ukrainian conflict. Drawing on cross-sectional survey data, the research reveals significant differences in how respondents…

Towards a Theory of Coupled Sociopolitical Events-Planetary Boundaries, Crises, Policrisis and Earth System Syndromes

July 29, 2025

Orfeu Bertolami and Ricardo Elísio

This paper introduces a novel modelling framework to evaluate how specific sociopolitical events influence the Earth System and their interaction with Planetary Boundaries. The authors present an interacting matrix model…

Global Food Security in a Turbulent World: Reviewing the Impacts of the Pandemic, the War and Climate Change

July 26, 2025

Donatella Saccone and Elena Vallino

The authors explore how the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia–Ukraine war, and climate change have jointly disrupted global food security. Drawing on recent empirical evidence, the paper examines the mechanisms through…

The State of Global Catastrophic Risk Research: A Bibliometric Review

July 22, 2025

Florian Ulrich Jehn, John-Oliver Engler, Constantin W. Arnscheidt, Magdalena Wache, Ekaterina Ilin, Laura Cook, Lalitha S. Sundaram, Frederic Hanusch and Luke Kemp

This paper presents a systematic bibliometric analysis of the expanding literature on global catastrophic risk (GCR) and existential risk (ER). Based on 3,437 documents, the authors identify ten major research…

Cascading Failure, Financial Network and Systemic Risk

July 20, 2025

Chuangxia Huang, Hualu Miao, Xiaoguang Yang, Jie Cao and Huirui Yang

This paper addresses the challenge of accurately measuring systemic risk by introducing a novel indicator, Expected Shortfall Rank (ESRank), which accounts for cascading failures and network effects often overlooked in…

The History of Bad Ideas: Polycrisis

July 10, 2025

David Runciman and Gary Gerstle

In this podcast, David Runciman talks to historian Gary Gerstle about how the idea of the polycrisis was originally conceived, what its current popularity reveals about our times, and whether…

Youth in the Polycrisis

July 7, 2025

Daniel Hoyer

In this webinar, historian Daniel Hoyer examines the concept of the polycrisis through a historical lens. He explores the lessons past societies offer for understanding today’s complex global challenges and…

About the Resource Library

The Polycrisis Resource Library includes resources that:

  • Comment on the polycrisis as a concept and as a present global reality
  • Undertake similar analysis using different—but related—concepts
  • Analyze crisis interactions among multiple global systems

Though not exhaustive, the Library strives to present a diverse representation of views on different aspects of the polycrisis discussion, and will be updated as that discussion evolves. Search for resources with the keyword search bar, or by using the drop-down menus to filter for type of resource, global systems addressed, and key themes.

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