Looking at the rise and fall of historical civilizations, the forces that precipitate or delay a collapse can tell us about our own.

We can define collapse as a rapid and enduring loss of population, identity, and socio-economic complexity. Public services fold, and chaos ensues as...

Societies of the past and present are just complex systems comprising of people and technology.

Although we have better technologies, we are not immune to the threats that faced our ancestors. If anything, our technological abilities bring more challenges. Our globalized e...

The collapse metrics are not the whole picture without also adding societal resilience, which may delay or prevent collapse.

• Global economic diversity - a measurement of the diversity and sophistication of country exports - is higher today than fifty...

Although there is no conclusive explanation of why civilizations collapse, there are factors that can contribute.

• Climatic change can result in disaster, resulting in crop failure, starvation, and desertification. The Akkadians, the Mayan, the Roman Empire, and m...

In the past, collapse was within a region. Today the world is deeply interconnected and interdependent, making societal collapse more treacherous.

• The weapons available today range from biological agents to nuclear weapons.
• People produce food and essential goods in an incre...