ABSTRACT
In humankind's inaugural urban and metropolitan century, this chapter argues that a significant urban dimension to the downside risks of globalisation exists, with the negative effects disproportionately felt in highly connected global cities. For some geographers, humanity's historic crossing of the urban threshold went largely unrecognised and unreported, and its profound symbolic importance is overlooked. The chapter redresses some of this oversight, by highlighting the hitherto unexplored nexus between global cities and global risks for IR and Security Studies. Mounting concerns about rapidly spreading global risks are reflected in academic works such as Ulrich Beck on a world at risk and Ian Goldin on how globalisation creates systemic risks that can destabilise whole societies. There has a plethora of policy reports on global risks and shocks issued by global bodies such as the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), as well as the publication of National Risk Registers in Britain and the Netherlands.
