Academic Journal Article

Towards the Governance of Global Systemic Risk: Reforming the Summit of the Future

This paper examines the United Nations’ 2024 Summit of the Future and its Pact for the Future, suggesting that while the Pact addresses key global challenges, it does not fully account for the systemic nature of emerging risks such as polycrisis and planetary overshoot. The authors argue that existing governance models may be insufficient for […]

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Artificial Intelligence in the Polycrisis: Fueling or Fighting Flames?

The authors explore how artificial intelligence is increasingly entangled with the polycrisis. Using the Anthropocene Traps framework, they examine 14 self-reinforcing structural dynamics to reveal how artificial intelligence can both exacerbate and help address these crises. While artificial intelligence supports data collection, efficiency, and ecological research, it also fuels unsustainable growth imperatives, infrastructure lock-ins, and

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How Do Crises Spread? The Polycrisis and Crisis Transmission

Malte Brosig examines the conditions under which crises may transmit across systems, presenting a conceptual analysis that draws on a diverse set of theoretical frameworks, including neofunctionalism, rational choice, complexity theory, assemblage theory, and epidemiology. He argues that crisis transmission is not automatic but may be shaped by factors such as stressor similarity, functional interdependencies,

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The Social Pathology of Polycrisis

Stephen J. Purdey explores how the polycrisis has emerged as a growing threat despite humanity’s shared desire for safety and prosperity. He argues that its material dimensions are rooted in and legitimized by an underlying belief system. Key elements of this system include an exaggerated sense of human exceptionalism, an anthropocentric worldview, and a licentious

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What Comes After the Polycrisis?

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

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Polycrisis and Political Cynicism: What are the Links?

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.

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Polycrises: A New International Reality?

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.

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Revolution in an Age of Polycrisis

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

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Liberal Environmentalism and Climate Change in the Polycrisis

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

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Cascading socio-economic and financial impacts of the Russia-Ukraine war differ across sectors and regions

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

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