Policy and Practice

Introduction: The European Union beyond the Polycrisis? Integration and Politicization in an Age of Shifting Cleavages

This article introduces a special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy on Europe’s polycrisis, setting out the mechanisms of its “politics trap” and the strategies that have been utilized to try to deal with its constraints. It argues that “this ‘polycrisis’ is fracturing the European political system across multiple, simultaneous rifts, thereby creating a ‘polycleavage’.”

Introduction: The European Union beyond the Polycrisis? Integration and Politicization in an Age of Shifting Cleavages Read More »

Taking Strategic Initiative to Prevent and Defuse Major Risks

Melanie Hart, Jordan Link, and Ngor Luong of the Center for American Progress translate and discuss Chinese Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission Secretary-General Chen Yixin’s effort to explain President Xi Jinping’s “ten fundamental insights” on “preventing and resolving major risks”. Yixin considers black swan events and risk interactions, noting that “All categories of risk

Taking Strategic Initiative to Prevent and Defuse Major Risks Read More »

Speech at the Opening Plenary Session at the Ideas Lab 2018 “Europe – Back on Track” of the Centre for European Policy Studies (Brussels)

In this speech, then President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Junker uses the term polycrisis (albeit only once) to refer to the combined migration, financial, and Brexit crises facing Europe. He proposed: “It is not so long ago that our Union was in danger of sleepwalking from one crisis to another without waking up… Since

Speech at the Opening Plenary Session at the Ideas Lab 2018 “Europe – Back on Track” of the Centre for European Policy Studies (Brussels) Read More »

Towards and Integrated Assessment of Global Catastrophic Risk

Seth D. Baum and Anthony M. Barrett argue that there are underappreciated systemic interactions between catastrophic risks. Actions taken to mitigate one catastrophic risk may increase or reduce another catastrophic risk. To address these interactions, leaders must use an “integrated assessment” of the whole collection of global catastrophic risks to ensure efforts to remediate one

Towards and Integrated Assessment of Global Catastrophic Risk Read More »

Speech by President Jean-Claude Juncker at the Annual General Meeting of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker uses the term polycrisis to describe Europe’s governance challenges amidst the Greek debt crisis, Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the surge of Syrian refugees into Europe, and the pending Brexit vote. These problems “have not only arrived at the same time. They also feed each other, creating a sense of doubt

Speech by President Jean-Claude Juncker at the Annual General Meeting of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises Read More »

A Decade of Adaptive Governance Scholarship: Synthesis and Future Directions

The authors survey the development of the adaptive governance concept, which they define as “A range of interactions between actors, networks, organizations, and institutions emerging in pursuit of a desired state for social-ecological systems” (p. 6). Flexible, polycentric networks of diverse stakeholders can better address the uncertainty and complexity of change in social-ecological systems than

A Decade of Adaptive Governance Scholarship: Synthesis and Future Directions Read More »

Places to Intervene in a System

Complex systems have leverage points, critical places where a change can profoundly alter system behaviors. Donella Meadows explores twelve leverage points in complex systems using real-world examples. “Leverage points are not easily accessible, even if we know where they are and which direction to push on them…you have to work at it, whether that means

Places to Intervene in a System Read More »

Scroll to Top