In late 2002, Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson observed that 'Risk is the defining characteristic of our new era'. Indeed, events since then have only served to heighten this near-obsession with risk, almost arrogating for itself the status of twenty-first-century Zeitgeist. Incessant media headlines warn us about the wide range of risks endangering humankind which we need to somehow manage and avert. A brief sample would include global climate change; catastrophic terrorism; proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD); economic collapse; possible infectious disease pandemics like bird flu and BSE; GM 'Frankenstein' foods; mobile phone radiation, to the latest concerns about Wi-Fi hotspots and the emissions they radiate. As readers of this journal will no doubt be aware, risk studies and risk research have become booming cottage industries in their own right. The further expansion of risk studies into the domain of International Relations (IR) would be a logical and potentially significant progression, given the nature of globalised risks policy-makers now have to contend with.
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