Op-Ed Commentary

The Financial System is a Giant Polycrisis Waiting to Happen

The author argues that today’s financial system faces a polycrisis characterized by multiple vulnerabilities including highly leveraged Treasury basis trades, record sovereign debt levels, commercial real estate refinancing pressures, growing exposure within opaque non-bank financial institutions, dangerously concentrated AI-driven equity markets, and destabilizing geopolitical pressures from conflicts involving Iran and Russia. Unlike 2008, where stress […]

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Sky-High Oil Prices. A Fertilizer Shortage. Now Add a “Super El Niño.”

This article argues that the war involving Iran, particularly through the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, has driven up oil and fertilizer prices, triggering supply shortages that threaten global agricultural production just as climate pressures intensify. The anticipated arrival of a strong or “super” El Niño is expected to further disrupt weather patterns, compounding

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You Can’t Have a Revolution Without Revolution: Navigating Polycrisis and Political Change in Iran

This article examines the war involving Iran through the lens of polycrisis and revolutionary theory, arguing that externally driven attempts at regime change risk deepening interconnected crises rather than producing meaningful political transformation. The article situates the conflict within a broader regional and global polycrisis, highlighting how war, energy disruptions, food insecurity, economic instability, displacement,

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Dynamics of Polycrisis 2.0

This commentary reviews fifteen continuing dynamics of the polycrisis and examines how they have changed over the past year. It argues that global instability is increasingly driven by the interaction of multiple reinforcing crises, including proliferating armed conflicts, escalating geopolitical rivalry, the breakdown of international cooperation, rising inequality, democratic backsliding, and intensifying climate disruption. The

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The World Order After 2025

In this article, Yuen Yuen Ang argues that 2025 marks not just the end of the postwar global order but the emergence of a new one. She examines the collapse of a system built on US-led geopolitical stability, industrial progress, and globalization, highlighting internal contradictions such as concentrated authority, widening inequality, environmental degradation, and political

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Tackling the Complex Links Between Climate Change, Conflict, and Health

The authors underscore the urgent need to address the interconnected threats of climate change, conflict, and health. They highlight how these threats not only cause direct harm, such as heat-related deaths and conflict-driven mortality, but also compound vulnerabilities by damaging health systems, disrupting essential services, and fueling cycles of instability. Fragile and conflict-affected states are

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Turning Polycrisis into Polytunity

In this UNDP expert commentary, Yuen Yuen Ang argues that the convergence of global disruptions should be viewed not only as a period of crisis but also as an opportunity for systemic transformation. She introduces the concept of “polytunity” and proposes an Adaptive, Inclusive, and Moral (AIM) political economy as an alternative framework for addressing

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Mapping an Ecology of Integrative Approaches to Addressing the Metacrisis

This paper presents a systematic mapping of integrative responses to the metacrisis, understood as a complex web of interconnected global crises spanning ecological, epistemic, ethical, and existential domains. Using a metatheoretical methodology, the authors identify and compare a broad range of emerging integrative approaches. They argue that frameworks such as metamodernism, integral theory, Game B,

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We’re in a polycrisis. Philanthropy should adopt a systems-focused approach.

The author discusses the interconnected nature of current global challenges, emphasizing the substantial impact of locally-led, systems-focused approaches in addressing multidimensional issues. He highlights the importance of early-stage local organizations’ firsthand knowledge of their communities, systems mindset, agility, adaptability, and collaborative strategies.

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We live in times of multiple entwined crises – but our policy responses aren’t keeping up

The authors discuss the inadequacy of current policies in addressing interconnected crises like biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution. Drawing on two IPBES assessment reports, they argue that while these reports offer effective policy options for transformative change, progress in implementing these solutions remains insufficient.

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