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This article argues that the most consequential risks of the coming years will emerge not from individual crises but from their interaction, eroding trust and fragmenting systems. It identifies four risk trends likely to shape the path to 2030: the emergence of an increasingly polycentric world as US global leadership becomes more selective; a deepening […]
Four Global Risk Trends Likely to Shape the Planet through 2030 Read More »
The author examines the concept of polycrisis by distinguishing between surface-level crises and deeper structural drivers, arguing that prevailing approaches remain overly descriptive and fail to account for underlying causes. Drawing on a historical materialist framework, the author conceptualizes polycrisis as the manifestation of four interconnected structural crises: global capitalism, global gender relations, global race
Dissecting the Polycrisis, Charting the Conceptual Terrain of Enquiry Read More »
The author argues that the United States is experiencing a polycrisis, a convergence of simultaneous, mutually reinforcing crises spanning foreign policy, the rule of law, civil rights, constitutional governance, the environment, healthcare, the military, and the economy. The author maintains that this multi-crisis dynamic leaves the U.S. vulnerable to extreme hardship and governmental collapse, and
America’s Polycrisis Has Arrived Read More »
The author contends that the 2026 Doomsday Clock setting reflects a polycrisis. Arguing that traditional frameworks in International Relations are inadequate for addressing the political, ethical, and structural dimensions of this moment, the article calls for re-centering peace as a foundational concern. Rather than viewing peace merely as the absence of conflict, the author draws
Peace Studies and International Relations in an Age of Polycrisis Read More »
This article develops a political economy framework to analyse multiple, overlapping global crises, including crises of capitalism, labour, gender, race, and ecology. Drawing on the philosophy of internal relations and a historical materialist approach, the author argues that these crises are not separate but internally related, arising from the structural dynamics of capitalist accumulation, which
This article argues that what looks like sudden disruption is actually the visible crest of decades-long, slow-moving structural shifts. Drawing on complexity science, it explains how small, often barely perceptible stresses accumulate along a “long tail” before accelerating into exponential change and tipping points, whether in climate systems, public health, or politics. Rather than reacting
The Slow Forces Behind this Year’s Fast Crises Read More »
The authors examine how environmental education is being reconfigured in an era of polycrisis, urging a move beyond reductive, growth-driven and technocratic paradigms. They advocate for a postgrowth educational approach that embraces ecological overshoot, social unravelling, and the systemic limits of industrial modernity. Drawing on heuristics rooted in complexity science, disaster studies, land economics, and
Illuminating Limits: Educating for Postgrowth Futures in a Time of Polycrisis Read More »
The author explores the psychological toll of living through a polycrisis, characterised by the convergence of multiple, compounding global threats. Drawing on insights from psychologists and anthropologists, the article examines how radical uncertainty erodes individuals’ capacity to envision the future, resulting in paralysis, disconnection, and diminished long-term planning. The piece concludes by outlining strategies for
We Are Living in a Time of Polycrisis. If You Feel Trapped – You’re Not Alone Read More »
The authors explore how the polycrisis requires a rethinking of funding mechanisms to build community resilience. They argue that traditional, risk-averse, outcome-based models are ill-suited to address interconnected crises, and propose the Human Learning Systems (+) model—an approach that enables funders and grantees to consider system-scale elements such as local economic drivers and political conditions,
In this analysis, Foreign Policy presents its annual foresight of the top global risks for 2026. Drawing on the authors’ forecasting experience at the National Intelligence Council, the report outlines ten interconnected threats, including economic crisis, the dissolution of global order, disruptive AI trajectories, and accelerating climate decline. The authors argue that the world is
Welcome to the Age of Chaos Read More »
