The Urgency of Building Systemic Risk Capacity in a Polycrisis World

The authors argue that the world urgently needs to build systemic risk capacity to address an unprecedented polycrisis. They explain that modern crises are unprecedented in their scale, speed, and global interconnectedness, amplified by inequality, environmental degradation, and advanced technologies. Because cascading and compounding risks now routinely overwhelm existing institutions, the authors call for a major societal shift toward systemic risk capacity: cross-sector governance reforms, long-term planning, transdisciplinary research, open data, inclusive public engagement, and increased funding grounded in principles of justice, transparency, participation, and recognition of complexity.