Introduction

摘要

In recent years, the world has seemed to careen from one crisis to another, with little time to recover from the last before the next begins. Electoral conflicts, public health emergencies, economic upheavals, and geopolitical cataclysms have followed each other or overlapped with one another, sometimes with no reprieve. Few of us have much influence on the trajectory of these histories-in-the-making, but one way to cope with a potential sense of overwhelm is through greater understanding. The essays in this issue work to that end by providing insight into many of the challenges facing us today, including climate change, political tumult, commodity shocks, and epidemics.