Systemic Risk Archives

The Weaponization of Emerging Technologies and Their Impact on Global Risk: A Perspective from the PfPC Emerging Security Challenges Working Group

The authors examine how emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, quantum computing, and neurotechnology, are reshaping global security risks. The study argues that traditional threat-based security models are inadequate for addressing the complex, transnational, and increasingly weaponized nature of these technologies. The authors propose a shift toward risk-based frameworks that emphasize resilience, systemic […]

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Future Risks Report 2025

The AXA Future Risks Report 2025 presents a comprehensive analysis of global risk perceptions, emphasizing how increasing social fragmentation is compounding systemic vulnerabilities across societies. The report identifies climate change, geopolitical instability, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and big data, social tensions and movements, natural resources and biodiversity loss, macroeconomic risks, energy risks, financial stability risks, and

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Food Trade Disruption After Global Catastrophes

The authors examine how the global food trade system is vulnerable to major shocks such as abrupt sunlight reduction (from nuclear war or volcanic activity) or global infrastructure loss (from severe geomagnetic storms or pandemics). Using a network model, they find that a sunlight reduction event could cause most countries to lose 50%–100% of their

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Global Systemic Stresses: Understanding the Drivers of Polycrisis

This report introduces the Cascade Institute’s Stress-Trigger-Crisis model, a systemic framework that distinguishes between slow-moving stresses that erode the resilience of global systems and fast-moving trigger events that precipitate crises. It identifies 14 global systemic stresses that affect nine vital systems: climate, ecology, food, energy, economy, infrastructure, health, social order and governance, and world order.

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Stress-Testing the Resilience of Critical Infrastructures Exposed to Polycrises Triggered by Emerging Risks

The article introduces a new approach to stress-testing the resilience of critical infrastructures that are exposed or potentially exposed to adverse events, polycrises, or disasters. It focuses on extreme threats (XTs) that may trigger polycrises and proposes the use of resilience and threat indicators, quantitative stress-testing methods, and standardized solutions. This integrated approach seeks to

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It’s Time to Consider Global Catastrophic Food Failures

The authors explore how food systems face interconnected, systemic risks that could culminate in widespread disruptions, potentially triggering extreme global famine, alongside other neglected extreme risks. They introduce the term Global Catastrophic Food Failure (GCFF) as a type of global catastrophic risk, intended to unify diverse strands of research focused on ensuring global food availability

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Positive Externalities in the Polycrisis: Effectively Addressing Disaster and Climate Risks for Generating Multiple Resilience Dividends

This paper argues that, in the context of the Polycrisis, further investment is urgently needed to address the underlying drivers of disaster and climate-related risks. The authors examine the state of arts of the Triple Dividend of Resilience (TDR) framework, a concept that suggests resilience investments yield not only risk reduction benefits from intervention investments,

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New Challenge for Risk Governance: Polycrisis and Systemic Risk

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 approach to risk assessment and management is insufficient to address the multiple facets of polycrisis and introduces a systemic risk framework to capture the systemic

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Understanding Polycrisis: Why Interconnected Disasters are the New Normal

In this article, the author explores how disasters such as pandemics, wars, and climate-related events are becoming increasingly interconnected, marking a shift toward what researchers describe as a polycrisis. Drawing on insights from the study “Understanding Polycrisis: Definitions, Applications, and Responses,” the piece highlights how overlapping and cascading crises reveal the fragility of global systems

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