Volume 13
Issue 2 

In this issue, you will find news reports of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Risks Report 2018 and the 2018 Allianz Risk Barometer, which survey experts and businesses on what risks concern them most. Both reports note the usual suspects – extreme weather events, natural disasters, cyber attacks, data fraud and terrorism among others.

Landscapes inevitably change over time. Risk topography is no different, with new concerns such as illicit trade, large-scale involuntary migration, new technologies, food crises and disease finding their way into these reports. Old foes and new… But regular readers of CRJ will already be familiar with these threats.

Very rarely do we get frustrated on CRJ, but a perennial (if, thankfully, relatively rare) irritation is meeting somebody who simply cannot conceptualise why events and factors outside their immediate area of expertise have a direct and material relevance to their work in resilience, preparedness, response or security. Events inevitably demonstrate how deluded this myopic attitude can be.

Years ago, when researching for the launch of this publication, I got in touch with a number of contacts in this sphere to research the effects climate change might have on their roles. Every single person replied that they envisaged no impact at all. How times have changed.

Opioid addiction; trauma and mental health (whether in the workplace or between generations of societies enduring poverty or conflict); the malevolence of online predators encouraging vulnerable youngsters to self-harm or to hurt others; fakery, fraud, propaganda and misleading news; the shifting acceptable window of political views and how these are being shaped by manipulation – these are all topics in this issue. And they are often entangled with one another; it can be a matter of making connections between seemingly disparate phenomena or events, and extrapolating potential consequences and impacts to get a truly global vision of what could lie over the horizon.

Understanding these linkages and their possible consequences on your business, community or service is imperative. Failure to do so not only implies a lack of vision and planning, but also demonstrates a deep failure to understand and appreciate the intricate, dark kaleidoscope of today’s ever-evolving threats and risks.