Emerging Risks in the 21st Century: An Agenda for Action

This book explores the implications of these developments for economy and society in the 21st century, focussing in particular on the potentially significant increase in the vulnerability of major systems. It concentrates on five large risk clusters: natural disasters, technological accidents, infectious diseases, food safety and terrorism, identifies the challenges facing OECD countries and sets out recommendations for governments and the private sector as to how the management of emerging systemic risks might be improved.



The 21st Century has so far witnessed a host of large-scale disasters in various parts of the world including: windstorms, flooding, new diseases infesting both humans and animals, terrorist attacks and major disruptions to critical infrastructures. It is not just the nature of major risks that seems to be changing, but also the context in which risks are evolving as well as society’s capacity to manage them.

Table of Contents
Introduction and Summary
Chapter 1. Emerging Systemic risks
Chapter 2. Risk Assessment
Chapter 3. Risk Prevention
Chapter 4. Emergency Management
Chapter 5. Recovery Issues
Chapter 6. Conclusions and recommendations – An action-oriented agenda
Annexes: OECD Futures Project on Emerging Systemic Risks
1. Members of the Steering Group
2. Contributing Experts.
3. Contributing OECD Directorates and Agencies.