In a turbulent world, this timely book offers a distinctive exploration of major global challenges. It identifies the shared, underlying attributes of ‘Complex Unbounded Problems’ that make them so challenging and offers insights into how these challenges form – often unnoticed – how they coalesce, cross boundaries, exceed our response capacities and leave a long tail of impacts, exposing unsoundness in both knowledge and policy.
With a particular focus on Earth System change, nuclear power and emergencies, pandemic threats and the risk of cascading crises in near-earth space, the book explores future directions for tackling risk and disruption, with emphasis on foresight capacity and a better understanding that, since disaster potentials link up, successful responses must do so as well.
Re-imagining Risk and Disruption is an invaluable resource for students and scholars of global environmental change, risk and disasters, security, technological safety and development studies. It will also benefit policymakers and practitioners in NGOs and international organizations working on public health, security, infrastructure and the environment.
This timely book traces the common attributes of slow and fast-moving disruptions and disasters, from climate change and pandemics to increasingly crowded near-earth space and nuclear emergencies. It shows how these challenges form, coalesce and cross boundaries, and recommends preventative policies and action.
Arvustused
In the Anthropocene, our tightly connected systems are strained by disasters, technological failures, geopolitical tensions and humanitarian crises. This book offers insights of how such Complex Unbounded Problems emerge, interact and cascade across systems, revealing the shared attributes and interdependencies that drive systemic risk. Importantly, it also provides a vital lens of hope, showing that effective action is possible through coordinated responses, the growing leadership of subnational and civil society actors, and stronger collaboration across disciplines. By bringing these insights together, the book advances systemic risk assessment and strengthens our collective ability to anticipate and respond in an interconnected world. -- Jana Sillman, University of Hamburg, Germany Climate crises compel a transformative shift in how we understand and govern risk. This work bridges innovation and equity-driven research, offering a clear roadmap to navigate the complex, unbounded risks shaping our future. It is essential reading for leaders, scholars, and communities shaping a resilient, just future. -- Bapon Fakhruddin, Green Climate Fund, New Zealand The global risk landscape is becoming complex; risks are becoming interconnected and compounded and cascading hazards are becoming more frequent. Within such a context, this book is an important scholarly contribution which addresses the core issue of complexity of risks and practical risk management and mitigation approaches. A very timely and a must-read academic work with specific global examples. -- Rajib Shaw, Keio University, Japan
1 Disruption, risk, threats and complex unbounded problems
2 Complex unbounded problems: prime attributes and core
concepts
3 Earth Systems
4 When nuclear goes wrong
5 Biologics
6 CUPs in the Near Earth Space Ecology
7 Confronting CUPs: nature, politics, technology and hope
Peter M. Weiske, Adjunct Lecturer, Stephen Dovers, Emeritus Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Australia, William J. Durch, Distinguished Fellow, Stimson Centre, Washington DC, USA and John Handmer, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Vienna, Austria
