Mastering Risk Management

INTRODUCTION

In the thirteenth century, when plagues, wars and famine were raging across continental Europe, Thomas Aquinas, philosopher, and saint as he later became, wrote, ‘The world has never been more full of risk.’ Over 750 years later, people continue to have the same view, but now climate change, terrorism or chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks keep them awake at night. And, of course, pandemics, including Covid-19 or ‘Spanish flu’ in 1918/19,1 as well as SARS or swine flu, haunt us. Plus ça change.

Whether or not the world is more risky, awareness of risk is undoubtedly high. That in part reflects changes in society in which risk assessment and risk tolerance are increasingly democratised. Various forms of activism, ...