The Spectrum of (Poly)Crisis: Exploring Polycrises of the Past to Better Understand our Current and Future Risks

The authors explore the concept of polycrises by examining historical examples from late 1st-millennium CE Mesoamerica, Late Medieval Eurasia, and the Early Modern Northern Hemisphere to illustrate how these periods exhibited key characteristics of a polycrisis. They argue that studying historical polycrises can enhance our understanding of contemporary challenges and inform the development of strategies to address the complex, interconnected risks we face today.