In the Age of Multiple Crises
In the Age of the Polycrisis: How Complex Crises Arise and How We Can Address Them
In recent years, the world has experienced a variety of crisis situations that can be understood as a complex system of parallel, overlapping, and interconnected crises. These polycrises have the potential to cause the failure of social and political systems, yet they have so far received insufficient attention in academic research, both conceptually and in terms of their impact. This interdisciplinary project aims to examine the tension between complex crises and the necessary sociopolitical reduction of this complexity. For it is precisely this reduction of complexity that carries the risk of causing crisis communication to fail or of polarizing social discourse.
To date, there has been no theory-driven conceptual examination of the term “polycrisis” in the social sciences. Its application to empirical observations thus far has not been sufficiently theorized; consequently, it remains analytically unclear how a polycrisis can be identified and which individual crises, in what form, constitute a complex system of systemic risks. We therefore see the sociological conceptualization of polycrises as an opportunity to reduce complexity. Furthermore, there have been hardly any empirical analyses to date regarding the course, management, and consequences of polycrises for societies and states. This is due, on the one hand, to the fact that academia has not yet reached a consensus on an adequate conceptualization of polycrises. On the other hand, however, the few empirical studies that exist demonstrate that the analysis of polycrises and the reduction of their complexity pose significant methodological challenges.
This research project aims to conceptualize the emergence, development, and progression of polycrises, as well as to examine their impact on social and political discourses and, consequently, on crisis management, in order to provide insights into how these novel crises can be addressed. To this end, we aim to answer two questions in this research project:
- How can the dynamics (origin, development, and progression) of polycrises be described and conceptualized more effectively?
- How do global polycrises influence social and political discourse regarding crisis management and the simplification of complex issues?
To explore the complex issue of multiple crises and their effects, theoretical approaches and research methods from the fields of international relations and American studies are combined, including, for example, complexity theory, the theory of ontological security, and methods from corpus-based discourse analysis.
As a first step in this research project’s work program, theoretical assumptions will be developed based on the literature in international relations, polycentrism, sociology, and complexity research. These assumptions will address the question of how polycentric crises can be conceptualized and what potential impacts various polycrises may have on nation-states and their societies. Although IR research has dealt extensively with the concept of crisis, the discipline has so far lacked a systematic understanding of what “polycrisis” means and encompasses. Against this backdrop, this research project integrates, as a first step, approaches to concept formation in order to develop a thorough conceptualization of polycrisis. This is intended to contribute to understanding the widespread uncertainty and complexity that have become characteristic features of today’s international politics.
In a second step, we then apply the developed concept of the polycrisis and, using a mixed-methods approach, examine specifically how social and political discourses take shape in the context of global polycrises. The first case study addresses the polycrisis of global climate change and natural disasters, as well as the social, societal, and political factors that exacerbate their impacts. The second case examines the polycrisis of the war in Ukraine and the associated economic, food supply, and energy crises. Due to their complexity and multifaceted nature, both cases represent ideal types of a polycrisis, but they potentially vary in terms of their diffusion and non-linearity.
Due to their diffuse complexity, polycrises are often perceived differently within societies, leading to disagreement over whether a crisis situation exists at all, who or what caused the crisis, and how it can be overcome. Due to their complexity and the seemingly never-ending uncertainty, polycrises have the potential to polarize crisis discourses, which in turn can influence crisis management. Through the methodological approach of quantitative and qualitative discourse analysis, the project aims to explore the concept of the polycrisis and thereby provide insights into state action in these crisis situations and the perception thereof. The United States remains a decisive factor here as a global superpower. However, the project also aims to draw comparisons with other political systems, such as Germany. Here, we are interested in the role that discourse patterns and actors play in the perception and addressing of complex crises, and whether these contribute to the effective management of polycrises (reduction of complexity). Due to their particular complexity, polycrises convey a high degree of uncertainty regarding the expected material and immaterial costs for society and the state. Consequently, governments, societies, and individuals strive to reduce the enormous complexity of today’s polycrises in order to legitimize societal mediation and acceptance of crisis management in the first place.
The WIN-Kolleg offers attractive conditions for interdisciplinary collaboration and networking within our research project. When examining perception and communication in crisis situations, the project can benefit from collaboration with other disciplines—for example, in addressing how crisis communication unfolds not only at the national and societal levels, but also how it is processed by individuals on a personal, psychological level. This allows for a holistic understanding of the societal impacts of polycrises and also enables an examination of individual crisis vulnerability and resilience.
WIN Fellows
Dr. Gordon M. Friedrichs
Gordon Friedrichs is a Senior Research Fellow in the MAGGI Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg. Previously, he was a Fulbright Schuman Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame and a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Political Science at the University of Freiburg.
His research focuses on international relations and comparative foreign policy analysis. Specifically, his research examines (1) the effects of polarization and populism on the foreign policy of democracies, with a focus on the United States; (2) the resilience and transformation of global governance institutions; and (3) interstate relations in East Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. More broadly, he is interested in how the interplay between domestic and foreign policy influences the role of states in the areas of security, trade, and the rule of law.
He has published three books: *U.S. Global Leadership Role and Domestic Polarization: A Role Theory Approach* (Routledge, 2020), *The Politics of Resilience and Transatlantic Order* (co-authored with Sebastian Harnisch and Cameron Thies, Routledge, 2019), and *National Role Conceptions in a New Millennium: Defining a Place in a Changing World (co-edited with Michael Grossman and Francis Shortgen, Routledge, 2022). His research has also been published in International Studies Review, Foreign Policy Analysis, International Politics, Journal of Global Security Studies, International Relations, and the Journal of International Relations, among others.
You can find more information about Gordon Friedrichs here.
Gordon Friedrichs
Dr. Natalie Rauscher
Natalie Rauscher is a postdoctoral researcher at the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) at Heidelberg University. Her research focuses on public and political discourses regarding the future of work and the platform economy in the United States. Her other research interests include social movements, social media, U.S. philanthropy and think tanks, as well as natural disasters in the United States.
In her postdoctoral project, Natalie Rauscher is examining philanthropy in the United States in the 21st century, focusing in particular on how new actors and new approaches to giving within (mega)philanthropy might affect public trust in this sector.
In 2021, her dissertation was published by Springer under the title *The Future of Work in the United States: Discourses on Automation and the Platform Economy* as part of the *Contributions to Economics* series. She has also published in journals such as *Zeitschrift für Politikberatung*, *Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft*, and *Politische Vierteljahresschrift*.
N. Rauscher
Members of the research team
Stella Kim
Stella Kim is a research fellow at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and is pursuing a Ph.D. on how complex crises—particularly climate change, pandemics, and strategic rivalries—impact armed conflicts in the evolving multipolar order of the 21st century. She completed her master’s degree in Security, Intelligence, and Strategic Studies in 2022 at the University of Glasgow, the University of Trento, and Charles University in Prague. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Goethe University Frankfurt, during which she also studied at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.
Previously, she worked for various European think tanks, where she published papers primarily on defense strategies in the Indo-Pacific region, as well as at the Federal Ministry of Defense and the European External Action Service, which brings together her research interests in security, defense, conflict analysis, and diplomacy in the Euro-Atlantic and Asia-Pacific regions.
Stella Kim
Steven Schwarz
Steven Schwarz is a research fellow at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. As part of his doctoral research, he is examining the role of domestic sectors and economic actors in the formulation and implementation of foreign and security policy in international relations in the age of polycrisis, using the examples of the Federal Republic of Germany and Japan.
Steven Schwarz earned his Master of Arts in Political Science at the University of Heidelberg, where he also completed related coursework at the Faculty of Law. During a one-year study abroad program at the Institut d'études politiques de Lille (Sciences Po Lille), he also earned a Certificat d'Études Politiques. Prior to that, he earned a Joint Bachelor of Arts in History and Political Science at the Technical University of Darmstadt. During his bachelor’s program, he also spent a semester studying at the Department of International Politics at Aberystwyth University in Wales. His master’s studies were supported by a scholarship from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom.
In October and November 2025, Schwarz spent two research periods in Tokyo as a visiting scholar at Sophia University and the University of Tokyo.
Steven Schwarz
Frederike Kanschat
Frederike Kanschat is a research assistant on the “In the Age of Polycrisis” project at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, where she studies the complex interplay of global crises. She holds an LL.M. in International Law from the University of Glasgow, as well as master’s degrees from the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals and the University of Tartu. She completed her bachelor’s degree in International Relations. During the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, she represented Estonia on issues concerning the rights of stateless persons and the powers of the UN Security Council. Prior to that, she gained experience at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law and at a political monitoring firm.
Anthologies
Articles in professional journals
Friedrichs, Gordon M. and Jule Sommer. “Ontological Security Crisis and Role Conception Change: The Impact of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine on the European Union's Role Conceptions” (2024). The European Journal of International Relations (forthcoming).
- Friedrichs, Gordon M. and Natalie Rauscher. “Icon of Freedom? American Society and U.S. Leadership in the (Poly)Crisis” (2024). Athene: Journal of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.