Global Shield Briefing (24 November 2025)
The latest policy, research and news on global catastrophic risk (GCR). Our view – unsurprisingly – is that the world is becoming increasingly risky. The risk from climate change, pandemics, weapons of mass destruction, emerging technologies and mother nature is not reducing. Mostly because the political, societal, economic, technological and environmental drivers underpinning them are […]
Global Shield Briefing (17 September 2025)
The latest policy, research and news on global catastrophic risk (GCR). The critical insight from 2002 book, Ubiquity: Why Catastrophes Happen by Mark Buchanan, is that many catastrophes – whether natural or human-made – share a deep structural similarity. Complex systems can exist in a precarious balance in which small shifts could trigger dramatic outcomes. […]
Global Shield Briefing (27 August 2025)
The latest policy, research and news on global catastrophic risk (GCR). “Be alert but not alarmed.” It’s what Australians were told in 2002 to warn them about the threat of terrorism. There was a large-scale media blitz, led by the prime minister. A dedicated hotline was set up – its number helpfully displayed on fridge […]
Global Shield Briefing (3 July 2025)
The latest policy, research and news on global catastrophic risk (GCR). A country’s power – its ability to shape the world around it in line with its interests – is so often measured in military might, economic heft and cultural clout. But if that power fuels the rise of global catastrophic risk, what is it […]
Global Shield Briefing (4 June 2025)
The latest policy, research and news on global catastrophic risk (GCR). When it comes to national resilience and preparedness, there’s a term that gets easily thrown around but is wildly complex: ‘whole-of-society’. The reality of 21st-century risk, and modern civilization, is that responding to a national crisis is not contained to the cabinet room and […]
Global Shield Briefing (7 May 2025)
The latest policy, research and news on global catastrophic risk (GCR). Global Shield is, as you might be sick of us repeating, focused on “all-hazards” policy. We want governments to take actions that hit multiple risk vectors at the same time. Policies that build awareness, understanding, preparedness, resilience and response to the full spectrum of […]
Global Shield Briefing (2024 holiday special)
The latest policy, research and news on global catastrophic risk (GCR). When it comes to worst-case scenarios, four big threats tend to dominate the discussion: nuclear war, climate change, pandemics and artificial intelligence. Once in a while, someone in the back raises their hand to call out threats from above, like asteroids. Other times, volcanologists […]
Global Shield Briefing (4 December 2024)
The latest policy, research and news on global catastrophic risk (GCR). There are various ways to describe the process of looking back after an event to draw out insights. In a military context, you might refer to it as an after-action review. In a policy context, perhaps you can refer to it as a policy […]
Global Shield Special Briefing: A preliminary government assessment of global catastrophic risk
The latest policy, research and news on global catastrophic risk (GCR). On 30 October, the RAND Corporation released an assessment of existential and global catastrophic risk. It is an extensive and lengthy treatment of six catastrophic threats: nuclear war, climate change, pandemics, artificial intelligence, asteroid or comet impacts, and supervolcanoes. This report is particularly important […]
Global Shield Briefing (2 October 2024)
The latest policy, research and news on global catastrophic risk (GCR). Homo sapiens became a formidable species not only due its ability to learn and adapt. It was due to its ability to transfer that knowledge from generation to generation. Individual intelligence became collective memory. Through oral stories, and later, the written word, our ancestors […]