Discover more from Global Shield's Newsletter
Global Shield launched in 2023 with the goal of conducting policy advocacy around the world on reducing global catastrophic risk. Having passed our one-year anniversary, we thought we’d indulge in the opportunity to showcase some of Global Shield’s highlights.
We’ll be back to our regular briefings shortly. Until then, have a read of what we’ve been up to. Perhaps you might even have a role to play.
A note from the Executive Director
“It is hard to believe that Global Shield was just an idea a little more than one year ago.
In the last year, we have advanced work in several areas of global catastrophic risk policy efforts in the United States and the United Nations. Implementation of the Global Catastrophic Risk Management Act, championing for a UN focus on catastrophic risk and crisis, and building Global Shield up for future growth, have been just some of our successes this year.
Over this same period, we have also seen rapid developments in artificial intelligence, ceaseless “hottest on record” climate pronouncements, and increased tension between nuclear powers. The time for action is now, and there is much to be done.
We started with an audacious, if humbling, goal: shape policies around the world to ensure we avert global catastrophe. I am immensely proud to be leading an organization with this mission. The road ahead is not an easy one, but it is worth every ounce of effort we can put into traversing it.”
- Jared Brown, Cofounder and Executive Director, Global Shield
Highlights from Global Shield’s first year
Ensuring the implementation of the Global Catastrophic Risk Management Act (GCRMA)
In 2022, prior to the creation of Global Shield, Executive Director Jared Brown led the advocacy effort for the legislation that became the GCRMA. Global Shield has continued to lead on the implementation of the Act and some related requirements appearing in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), ensuring the most policy benefit from their passage can be gained. The first legal requirement in the GCRMA is for the US government to produce an analysis of global catastrophic and existential risk.
We are tracking and supporting this requirement closely, and are hopeful that the report will be released by the end of this year. In anticipation of this major first outcome from the GCRMA, we have created additional advocacy plans post-release. Stay tuned for an active few months ahead.
Advancing new improvements to US policy following the GCRMA
While working to implement the GCRMA, Global Shield is also leveraging the legal precedent of the GCRMA to advance related policy improvements in the US government. In particular, we are working to improve governance of classified “continuity of operations plans” (COOP) in the face of the assessed global catastrophic risk from the GCRMA report.
In lay terms, continuity of operations plans represent the US government’s planning for maintaining core government functions in the aftermath of extreme catastrophes. These plans and facilities (such as so-called “doomsday bunkers” like Raven Rock) were originally crafted for the purpose of surviving a full-scale nuclear war, and now must be adapted for a much wider range of catastrophic threats. However, given the heavily classified nature of these programs, they receive very little oversight and have atrophied in the years since the Cold War.
Turning policy ideas into policy proposals through our Policy RDD process
Policymakers appreciate (and take more seriously) advocates who provide concrete and specific policies, and will quickly disregard advice that is general, academic, and not tailored to the current governance of risk. As a result, significant work is required to translate the expert advice and latest research into policies that are tractable, impactful, and communicable in a manner that can immediately be an input to legislation or policy guidance.
Global Shield has developed a Policy Research, Development, and Diffusion (RDD) process, which produces policy proposals that can be translated across different country jurisdictions. Using this process, and building on over 1,000 initial ideas sourced from research papers, Global Shield has developed and evaluated an initial directory of ~150 all-hazard policy ideas that can be used to respond to policy windows around the world as they arise. This directory is the most comprehensive of its kind in the community, positioning Global Shield as the global leader in developing actionable policies for risk reduction. We are progressing developing concrete policy proposals from a shortlist of these ideas.
Leading an advocacy push in support of the emergency platform’s inclusion in the Pact for the Future
The Pact for the Future is a potentially transformational UN document outlining how the multilateral system intends to reshape and reform itself for future challenges. Most relevant for global catastrophic risk, it recognizes “the need for a more coherent, coordinated and multidimensional international response to complex global shocks.” In revision two of the Pact, “Action 55” proposes to convene and operationalize “emergency platforms” in response to future crises, including global catastrophes. If authorized in the Pact, emergency platforms will be able to launched to serve as a coordination mechanism for international crises, like COVID-19 that demand global cooperation for effective solutions.
Global Shield has taken a leading global role in advocating for the emergency platform. We have been educating other influential civil society groups about the importance of the UN adopting the platform proposal, and we are developing critical support for it as it moves through the process. In particular, we recently published a letter urging Member States and the co-facilitators of the Summit of the Future to support the agreement and development of the emergency platforms concept.
Convening risk researchers and practitioners to increase sensitivity to global catastrophic risk
Global Shield believes that we must expand the diversity of voices that recognize the “fat tail” of consequences of global catastrophes and possible human extinction in risk assessments. Too often, so-called “global risk” assessments fail to incorporate the looming threat of AI, synthetic biology, and other threats that could lead to irrevocable harm to human survival and flourishing. To address this, Global Shield has identified and convened a host of actors that produce such assessments.
We’ve help convene a set of researchers and practitioners, where participants discussed common methodologies, ways these methods can better synthesize and communicate the complex nature of growing global risk, and the more complete inclusion of catastrophic and existential risk in reports. We are engaging stakeholders in the context of the UN’s forthcoming Global Risk Report, which will be presented at the UN Summit of the Future. Further, Global Shield has been selected as one of the organizing teams for the 2025 Global Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction High-Level Dialogues. We will be helping to organize sessions on better understanding systemic and global risk.
Developing plans for Global Shield’s possible expansion
Ultimately, we believe reducing global catastrophic risk must be a priority for nation-states around the globe. Given this, Global Shield is being intentionally designed to scale up into new countries. We have undergone a rigorous process to determine which countries might be most suitable for Global Shield to expand into. With around 15 countries of particular promise, two countries are presenting extremely exciting opportunities. Depending on our funding situation, Global Shield hopes to expand into at least one of these countries in 2025.
Since launching operations in the summer of 2023, we have set up a strong operational base for future work and, eventually, expansion to other countries. Our scaling plan is to use the “headquarters” to support Country Offices with operational needs, policy research and development, branding, and communications. We have diligently built our internal operations mechanisms in the past year with this in mind to allow for the growth of Global Shield when our funding situation allows.
Publishing on global catastrophic risk
Our team also worked to develop a broader public understanding of the need to reduce global catastrophic risk. For example, we have published three pieces in the industry-leading publication Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist, one on the challenge of global governance for AI, one on Global Shield’s all-hazards global catastrophic risk policy approach, and one on understanding global catastrophic risk.
We also have a series of other public media pieces forthcoming. We are also preparing other products, including explainers of our advocacy and policy approach, deep-dives into specific policy ideas, case studies of successful GCR policy, and databases full of policy research and ideas. We want our stakeholders – whether they be researchers, other advocates, policymakers or the public – to be the most informed audience on matters of GCR policy.
We need your support
Global Shield has exciting plans over the next year across advocacy, policy development, coordination, country expansion and media engagement. As we build towards our audacious goals, we need all the support we can get:
Get the word out about Global Shield and the need to reduce global catastrophic risk. Share this newsletter and our work with people you think can play a role.
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We continue seeking fundraising opportunities to match our audacious plans to scale Global Shield around the world.