Social Order and Governance Archives

Addressing the Polycrisis through Multi-Stakeholder Landscape Partnerships and the Rise of a Landscape Support System

In this seminar, Dr. Sara Scherr examines integrated landscape management (ILM) as a response to the ongoing polycrisis, arguing that it integrates healthy nature, regenerative economies, human well-being, and social solidarity in ways that empower local actors. Dr.Scherr finds that multi-stakeholder landscape partnerships have proliferated over recent decades, supported by growing knowledge, planning tools, and […]

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Why this Age of Polycrisis Demands a New Kind of Peace

The author argues that the contemporary polycrisis, characterized by escalating geopolitical tensions, ecological breakdown, growing inequality, and democratic fragility, requires a fundamental rethinking of peace. Rather than defining peace solely as the absence of war, the article advances the concept of planetary peace, a holistic framework that links peace within individuals, among societies, and with

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Twenty-First Century European B/Orders and Transborder Living-Spaces in Times of Polycrisis

This introduction to the special issue on 21st century European b/orders and transborder living-spaces in times of crisis discusses contemporary dynamics of re-bordering in Europe in the course of the polycrisis. The authors argue that what was once a model of cross-border integration, in which border regions served as laboratories for multilevel governance and transborder

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Fractured Reality

This report examines the evolving impact of digital technologies on European democracy, arguing that platforms algorithmically privilege negative and conflictual content, fragmenting shared reality into what the authors term a “fantasy-industrial complex,” while foreign control of dominant digital infrastructure exposes democratic discourse to direct and indirect interference. The report presents recommendations from fostering alternative public

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Beyond Climate: Sketching the Anatomy of our Polycrisis and Reflecting on Solutions

This article argues that climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inequity form an interconnected polycrisis driven by shared underlying causes and mutually reinforcing dynamics. It shows how environmental degradation and social inequity interact across systems, with high-income populations contributing disproportionately to these crises while experiencing fewer of their impacts. The article emphasizes that addressing this

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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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Flattening the Curve on Societal Crisis: Lessons from History

The authors argue that today’s polycrisis, marked by climate change, inequality, and institutional fragility, echoes recurrent structural challenges seen throughout history. While most historical crises led to violence and collapse, a small number were successfully averted through transformative reforms. Drawing on these rare cases, the authors outline three critical policy lessons: reverse rising inequality to

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How can Crisis-affected Countries Survive in the ‘New World Disorder’?

In this presentation, David Miliband, President of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), highlights recommendations from the IRC’s 2026 Emergency Watchlist. He notes that near 240 million people are in humanitarian need, most concentrated in just 20 countries, and warns that today’s crises are increasingly internationalized, prolonged, and fueled by climate stress, conflict economies, and diplomatic

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Immigration, War, Economic Collapse: Will the Global Order Change in 2026?

This article presents Fair Observers’s 2026 geopolitical outlook using a Social, Political, Economic, Religious, and Military framework. The authors argue that overlapping global stresses, immigration pressures, democratic dysfunction, economic fragility, and strategic rivalry, are accelerating institutional erosion. The analysis outlines key global risk dynamics, including the rise of far-right movements in Europe, increasing state fragility,

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Undemocratic States, Accelerated Disaster: Can We Reverse the Economic Incentives that Are Killing the Planet?

The author explores how authoritarianism, imperialism, and global capitalism converge to deepen the planetary polycrisis, accelerating ecological breakdown and democratic erosion. Arguing that prevailing economic incentives favour perpetual war and environmental destruction, Fernandes asserts that international institutions have failed to address the structural drivers of crisis. The article calls for a reorientation of economic and

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