The authors discuss how Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) have limited capacity to navigate complex, interconnected global crises. They advocate for the integration of transdisciplinary approaches, including socio-technical transitions and diverse stakeholder perspectives, to chart sustainable pathways through the polycrisis.
The authors respond to criticism of the use of the word “polycrisis”, arguing that the world’s current crises are in many ways unprecedented and thus merit a new word and require new forms of analysis. They argue, “the past isn’t a good guide to our present and future. Too many basic parameters – such as
Dismissing the Term ‘Polycrisis’ has One Inevitable Consequence – Reality Always Bites Read More »
Adam Tooze argues that there are three ways to reconcile “the feverish talk of deglobalisation and decoupling” with statistics that “show an inertial continuity in trade and investment patterns: business as usual, insofar as nothing has changed and the deglobalisation talk is empty; a new Cold War in which the US is trying seriously to
Three Ways to Read the ‘Deglobalisation’ Debate Read More »
Noting that polycrisis was the key buzzword at the World Economic Forum’s January 2023 meeting in Davos, Daniel Drezner attempts to make sense of the concept as “the concatenation of shocks that generate crises in other systems that, in turn, worsen the initial crises, making the combined effect far, far worse than the sum of
Are we Headed toward a “Polycrisis”? The Buzzword of the Moment Explained Read More »
Andreas Kluth argues that the term polycrisis is unhelpful to solving the world’s problems because it captures nothing new. Human history is full of complex crises, interactions between them, and the absence of single causes and solutions. “My practical advice is to stop coining Greek neologisms and attack complexity with simple words. We have problems,
So We’re in a Polycrisis. Is That Even a Thing? Read More »
In response to the 2023 World Economic Forum summit in Davos, Michael Peregrine argues that “the emphasis on polycrisis calls on boards to not only look more broadly on global risks that might affect the company’s business, but also to look at them in a different way. The fundamental governance message of polycrisis is to
Jonathan Derbyshire characterizes the year 2022 as a polycrisis, discusses the origins of the term, and provides the definition: “Noun: collective term for interlocking and simultaneous crises of an environmental, geopolitical and economic nature.”
Year in a Word: Polycrisis Read More »
Hugo Dixon argues that the present polycrisis need not lead to a new Cold War or bifurcated world order, but could instead produce a polycentric order made up of multiple centres of authority, with the US as a leader but not a hegemon.
Polycrisis may Lead to Polycentric World Order Read More »
Mosharraf Zaidi argues that Pakistan has for decades experienced a polycrisis composed of abject poverty, gender inequality, insecurity of life and property, risk of mass killing, and threat of sovereign default, with no improvements in sight. Additional stresses include extreme weather, a politically involved military, right-wing extremist groups, and the ongoing conflict with India. The author
Our ‘Permacrisis of Polycrisis’ Read More »
Wolf argues that we cannot think about and address the many problems facing the world separately from one another. “The alternative of thinking about the interactions among [macroeconomics, finance, politics, social change, disease, and the environment] is also too hard. But sometimes, as now, it becomes inescapable… The point is that we need to analyse
How to Think about Policy in a Polycrisis Read More »
