Impact Trust • Working glossary

Global systemic risk

Risk that one shock can break the whole connected system.

Details

Our Take
Useful in distinguishing local or sectoral risk from risks that propagate across the entire system. Helpful in technical risk work; otherwise opaque without concrete examples (financial contagion, pandemic cascades, infrastructure collapse).
Examples of Use
Risk, finance, governance experts
Synonyms/Variants
Systemic risk; System-wide risk; Interconnected risk
Typical everyday wording
A shock big enough to break the whole system