A new Global Risks Report by World Economic Forum revealed the top threats of 2018 to international stability. The threats included environmental disasters related to extreme weather as well as cyber attacks and nuclear war.

Manmade Threats

The survey looked into the leading manmade threats to global stability and involved the participation of 1,000 business, education, government and service group leaders from around the world.
The report determined that it’s less likely that a global financial meltdown could occur as a result of current worldwide economic expansions. That said, nuclear war and cyberattacks clearly showed a significant concern. Cyberattacks appear to be a problem no matter the country. That said, nuclear war’s threat is specific to the threats made by Kim Jon Un in North Korea and his regular ballistic and nuclear weapons tests as well as American president Donald Trump’s continual insistence of poking the bear.

Nuclear Threats

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson believes that the United States is trying to find a diplomatic resolution between itself and Pyongyang when it comes to the nuclear question. That said, Tillerson continues to decline the opportunity to comment on whether there are plans to take limited military action against North Korea.

Among the respondents to the study, 93 percent said they predicted this year would come with a decline in “political or economic confrontations/frictions between major powers.” Moreover, almost 80 percent feel the risks linked with “state-on-state military conflict or incursion” and “regional conflicts drawing in major powers” will be greater than they have been over recent years.

Mother Nature’s Threats

Even more threatening than human’s impact on the world is what mother nature has to offer, according to the survey. This includes both extreme weather events and natural disasters, including those that may have been worsened by climate change from human activity.
Last year, extreme weather was violent and persistent. It included Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria in the Atlantic, which left a record-breaking $200 billion in damages behind. Record high and low temperatures struck China, Russia, South America, southern Africa and southern Europe. Forest fires ripped through parts of the United States, Canada and Europe. During that same year, President Trump removed the United States from the milestone Paris Climate Accord, which brought the world together in an effort to reduce global warming-impacting carbon emissions.
“Humanity has become remarkably adept at understanding how to mitigate conventional risks that can be relatively easily isolated,” said the report. “But we are much less competent when it comes to dealing with complex risks in the interconnected systems that underpin our world, such as organizations, economies, societies and the environment.”