Globalisation has brought us vast benefits including growth in incomes, education, innovation and connectivity. Professor Ian Goldin, director of the Oxford Martin School, argues that it also has the potential to destabilise our societies.

In his forthcoming book, ‘The Butterfly Defect: How globalisation creates systemic risks, and what to do about it’, co-authored with Mike Mariathasan, Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Vienna, he describes how these risks spread across supply chains, pandemics, infrastructure, ecology, climate change, economics and politics. Unless these risks are addressed, says Goldin, they could lead to greater protectionism, xenophobia, nationalism and to deglobalisation, rising conflict and slower growth.