Radio Davos

Can the word ‘polycrisis’ help us make sense of the post-COVID world? Historian Adam Tooze has his say

2023-02-15

‘Polycrisis’, a relatively new term, was in the air at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in January, where people were discussing the intertwined global issues of war, economic uncertainty, inflation, recession and the climate crisis, among others. But does that word really tell us anything new about the world we live in and the challenges we face? Historian Adam Tooze tells us about the origins of the term and of the polycrisis itself. Adam Tooze is Professor of History at the University of Columbia in New York. He is also host of Foreign Policy’s weekly econom...