The convergence of crises now often referred to as “the polycrisis” was heralded by the global economic crisis known as the Great Recession. Since then neither national nor global institutions have proven able to control the destructive gyrations of the global economy.

The global convergence of crises that has been dubbed the “polycrisis” has emerged in tandem with the decline of globalization. But what is replacing globalization is less a new system than a chaotic scramble. This is one of a series of Strike! Commentaries on “The Polycrisis and the Global Green New Deal.”

Globalization has been the hallmark of the economic world in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Since the Great Recession of 2008, however, globalization as we knew it has been changing fast. That change is an important part of what is being called the “polycrisis,” the convergence and mutual aggravation of geopolitical, economic, governance, climate, and other crises. This commentary examines the rise and fall of globalization as we knew it. The next commentary explores what is emerging from it. Both are part of a series on “The Polycrisis and the Global Green New Deal.”

Unilateral US dominance is increasingly challenged in the era of overlapping crises that is now often being referred to as “the polycrisis.” This has led many countries to advocate for what they call “polycentrism,” a world order in which no single country is dominant. But simply having a larger number of elites plundering their own and other countries is unlikely to provide a solution to the polycrisis. That requires that countries pursue not only interests of their own elites, but the common global interest that has been so rubbished in the unipolar era.

In barely a decade the US and China have moved from tacit alignment to existential rivalry. Impacted by and impacting the other dynamics of the convergence of crises that compose the “polycrisis,” the US and China are openly preparing for war – a war that could all too easily escalate into World War III. This is the sixth of a series of Strike! commentaries on “The Polycrisis and the Global Green New Deal.”

This commentary, the fifth in a series on “The Polycrisis and the Global Green New Deal,” takes the war that began in Gaza and is spreading throughout the Middle East as a laboratory for dissecting the dynamics of the concatenation of crises now being referred to as the “polycrisis.”

How, in a few short years, did we get from a world order dominated by the United States and characterized by economic globalization to one of great power rivalry and global economic fragmentation? This commentary, the fourth in a series on “The Polycrisis and the Global Green New Deal,” sketches that transformation.

“Polycrisis” is a word being used to describe the current confluence of military, geopolitical, economic, political, climate, and other crises. This series of commentaries on “The Polycrisis and the Global Green New Deal,” probes the dynamics of the polycrisis and what alternatives there might be to its race to destruction. This commentary, the third in the series, examines the stunning expansion of armed conflict in the polycrisis era.