In this article, Erik Assadourian explores how interventions during the polycrisis can be designed to be most effective in fostering a better post-polycrisis future, while also strengthening society’s ability to respond in the present. He argues that while collapse may be increasingly likely, societies still have opportunities to shape what comes after. Assadourian emphasizes the […]
What Comes After the Polycrisis? Read More »
The author examines the mutually reinforcing relationship between political cynicism and the emerging polycrisis. Verret integrates concepts such as governance performance, political distrust, and populism into a systemic analysis. He concludes that political cynicism both exacerbates and is intensified by economic instability, democratic backsliding, and governance failures, creating positive feedback loops that amplify systemic stress.
Polycrisis and Political Cynicism: What are the Links? Read More »
In this special issue of Recherche et politique appliquée, an initiative led by the Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory on Risks and Crises (LIRIC), the concept of polycrisis is explored through practical applications. Featuring contributions from graduate students, the issue offers critical reflections on the meaning, emergence, and operationalization of polycrisis across academic and francophone contexts.
Polycrises: A New International Reality? Read More »
The authors explore the intersection of revolutionary theory and emerging polycrisis discourses, examining how various international and national factors become intertwined, creating polycrisis events that can lead to revolutionary moments. These revolutionary moments can, in turn, exacerbate stresses that contribute to systemic dysfunction elsewhere, due to the entanglement of global systems. Through case studies of
Revolution in an Age of Polycrisis Read More »
David Krogmann explores the persistence of liberal environmentalism in international climate policy, despite the growing climate crisis and the broader polycrisis in international relations. He argues that the deep institutionalization of norms linking economic growth with environmental protection creates a mismatch between the crisis and political responses. Drawing on liberal institutionalism, constructivism, and neo-realism, Krogmann
Liberal Environmentalism and Climate Change in the Polycrisis Read More »
The authors examine how financial markets amplify the cascading socio-economic impacts of global food and energy trade disruptions. Applying their methodology to the Russia-Ukraine war, they reveal regionally diverse effects, including rising energy prices, market volatility, and worsening food affordability. Their findings underscore the need to address cascading risks to strengthen economic and food system
The author explores the growing body of scientific and scholarly work on human extinction and existential risks, focusing on the question: “What could kill everyone, and how likely is it to happen?” This review provides an overview of plausible causes of human extinction identified in current academic literature, includes expert judgments on their likelihood, and
Extinction of the human species: What could cause it and how likely is it to occur? Read More »
This paper presents an integrated systems approach to resilience and tipping points by bridging heuristic models with mathematical frameworks from dynamical systems theory. Using the ball-and-cup model alongside the S-shaped bifurcation curve, the authors demonstrate how concepts such as stability, adaptive capacity, and vulnerability can be formally defined and applied to complex ecological, climate, and
Principles for Guiding Future Research on Resilience and Tipping Points Read More »
The author explores the interconnected global risk landscape, where various risks amplify one another, potentially causing cascading effects across regions and sectors. She examines the global relationship between different types of risks and analyzes the significance of the coefficients derived from collected time panel data. Key findings include the positive correlation between net user growth
Global Interconnectedness of Risks: A Worldwide Analysis Read More »
The authors explore the polycrisis concept as the interaction of multiple global crises, arguing that focusing solely on causal links does not fully capture the politics of knowledge about the polycrisis. They highlight the challenge of managing deep scientific and political uncertainties in the Anthropocene and propose that the polycrisis research program adopts decision-making under
The Polycrisis and the Uncertainty Possibility Space Read More »
