Against Polycrisis
Noah Smith
Economics commentator Noah Smith opposes the term polycrisis, arguing that it overestimates the interconnectivity and severity of contemporary crises. He further posits that there are buffers in place in most…
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.
The ‘Polycrisis’ and Global Development Finance: Options and Dilemmas
Cameron Hill
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…
The Case Against ‘Polycrisis’
Samanth Subramanian
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…
How Many Shocks Can the World Take?
Stephen M. Walt
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…
Megathreats: Ten Dangerous Trends that Imperil Our Future and How to Survive Them
Nouriel Roubini
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…
IMF-World Bank Meetings are the Last Stop before a Coming Economic Storm
Lawrence H. Summers and Masood Ahmed
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
Kate Mackenzie and Tim Sahey, editors
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.
What is a Global Polycrisis? And how is it Different from a Systemic Risk?
Michael Lawrence, Scott Janzwood, and Thomas Homer-Dixon
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…
An Inconvenient Apocalypse: Environmental Collapse, Climate Crisis, and the Fate of Humanity
Wes Jackson and Robert Jensen
Wes Jackson and Robert Jensen confront the ecological and social crises shaping humanity’s future, arguing that survival depends on contraction rather than expansion. They explore how geographic determinism has influenced…
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.
Welcome to the World of the Polycrisis
Adam Tooze
Highlighting the connections between economic and non-economic shocks to the world, Adam Tooze proposes that “A problem becomes a crisis when it challenges our ability to cope and thus threatens…