Resources

The ‘Polycrisis’ and Global Development Finance: Options and Dilemmas

Cameron Hill discusses a “range of proposals to reform the international development finance architecture in ways that might alleviate some of the worst effects of the multiple global shocks for low- and middle-income countries. This blog canvasses several of the more prominent proposals, including the dilemmas and trade-offs they raise.” He focuses on “debt, global […]

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The Case Against ‘Polycrisis’

Samanth Subramanian contests the utility of the term “polycrisis” and the novelty of the present situation it is used to capture. Where Adam Tooze argues that the present situation is unique for its lack of single causes and single fixes, Subramanian proposes that many historical episodes featured this condition, including the financial crises of the

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How Many Shocks Can the World Take?

Stephen M. Walt considers a number of global shocks that have all happened in close temporal proximity to one another and are “overwhelming our collective ability to respond”: the breakup of the Soviet empire, China’s rise, 9/11 and the global war on terror, the 2008 financial meltdown, the Arab Spring, the global refugee crisis, the

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Megathreats: Ten Dangerous Trends that Imperil Our Future and How to Survive Them

The author defines megathreats as “severe problems that could cause vast damage and misery and cannot be solved quickly or easily” (p. 4). “We are facing megathreats unlike anything we have faced before… [and] they overlap and reinforce one another” (p. 5). Roubini explores ten megathreats: debt accumulation and debt traps; easy money and financial crises;

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IMF-World Bank Meetings are the Last Stop before a Coming Economic Storm

Ahead of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, Lawrence H. Summers and Masood Ahmed implore these institutions to avoid a global economic downturn by addressing the polycrisis: “Challenges ranging from increased interest rates, climate change and an epically strong dollar, to food-supply shortages, high inflation and a still-prevalent pandemic all

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The Polycrisis

The Polycrisis is a newsletter and a series of essays and panels exploring intersecting crises with a particular emphasis on the political economy of climate change and global North/South dynamics.

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What is a Global Polycrisis? And how is it Different from a Systemic Risk?

This discussion paper proposes that “A global polycrisis occurs when crises in multiple systems become causally entangled in ways that significantly reduce humanity’s prospects. These interacting crises produce harms greater than the sum of those the crises would produce in isolation, were their host systems not so deeply intertwined” (p. 2). The authors then elaborate

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Imperfect Notes on an Imperfect World

Christopher Hobson often discusses the polycrisis in his blog posts, emphasizing the need to “honestly recognise and reckon with the complexity of the present moment.” “Polycrisis: In this Valley of Dying Stars” (18 August 2022) “Seeing Polycrisis: Facing Fractals” (26 August 2022) “Polycrisis and Metamorphosis: When Change Outpaces Comprehension” (2 September 2022) “Picking up Polycrisis:

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Polycrisis and Long-Term Thinking

Polycrisis and Long-Term Thinking: Reimagining Development in Asia and the Pacific Foresight Brief

This Foresight Brief argues that conventional risk management frameworks cannot grapple with the growing number of systemic and existential risks generated by decades of globalization. Instead, these risks require more long-term thinking – “intentional consideration of what might happen in the future, the choices for influencing it and the consequences of those choices” (p. 10).

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