Concatenated global crises
12.08.2011 22:50
Society in Science fellow Reinette Biggs contributed to a discussion paper that asks whether global crises are increasingly interconnected, what mechanisms may potentially contribute to this state of affairs, and what actions could be taken to reduce the risk of concatenated crises. Concatenated crises are disturbances or shocks that emerge more or less simultaneously, spread rapidly and interact with each other across the globe. Biggs and her colleagues explored how crises such as the 2007-08 food price crisis, whose origin and effects stem from far removed parts of the world and diverse economic sectors, turned into a global crisis, and then had knock-on effects to other global crises. They then discuss potential actions and research needs to better understand how to reduce the risk of such concatenated crises.