polycrisis

A polycrisis (from the French polycrise) is a situation in which multiple, distinct crises (economic, environmental, geopolitical, social, or technological) occur simultaneously and interact in ways that amplify each other, producing outcomes more severe than the sum of the individual crises. The concept highlights the interdependencies and feedback loops between global systems, where shocks in one domain (e.g., climate change, financial instability, pandemics, energy insecurity, or political conflict) cascade into others.

Although the word was coined in the 1990s by French theorists Edgar Morin and Anne-Brigette Kerne, it gained widespread currency in the 2010s through amplification by Western leaders, academics and institutions such as the World Economic Forum (WEF), which organizes the annual Davos summits. Adam Tooze is most widely credited for popularizing the term, after he was profiled in Davos in 2023 in a prominent segment "Tooze has his say." Defining the meaning and salience of polycrisis, Adam Tooze states: "Here is your fear. This is what it might be called." Mark Leonard, Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, described global elites' reactions to the polycrisis narrative at Davos as "exhausting and bewildering." The notion underscores the increasing complexity and fragility of global systems in an era of globalization, ecological stress, and technological acceleration, as well as elite helplessness in the face of ruptures, as Project Syndicate in 2024 described: "We often complain that [leaders] in Davos are out of touch with everyday people. Today... they are just as confused as the people they are meant to represent."