Understanding and Coping with the Increasing Risk of System-Level Accidents”

Integrative risk management starts with the premise that no measure of exposure can be taken in isolation. It is a view that is well established in a corporate context, with stress being placed on a more holistic understanding of risk management. This integrative approach is beginning to make headway into the strategic management of risks at a societal level. There are many measures that can be undertaken by governments and authorities to manage systemic and overlapping risks. Over recent decades risk management has advanced to become an important independent subject manner. Progress in modelling, increased awareness of large risks and their interconnectivities, combined with experiences of major catastrophic events, have all contributed to the evolution of the discipline. There is much that can be learned about the mitigation of societal risk on the one hand; and promoting policies that facilitate advanced recovery from unavoidable events on the other. Swiss Re has brought together a number of leading authors to highlight different aspects of the topic, highlighting the path from improved working methodologies to implemented risk solutions. These include understanding the dynamics of system level risk; promoting approaches that allow swift financial and physical societal rebuilding post-catastrophe; and seeking workable solutions to two key systemic risks of hunger and climate change.