We often talk about global risks as if they live somewhere else. Summits, headlines, expert panels, graphs and indexes. Important, yes, but somehow distant from the power bill, the job you’re trying to keep, the neighbour you check in on or the storm that woke you at 3am.
That is why I have written Divided on Purpose: Global Risks 2026 – How They Will Affect You. It is written for anyone trying to make sense of what is happening around them and ahead of them — and wondering what, if anything, they can do.
The report sets out ten major risks shaping 2026, explains what is happening, why it matters and how it may reach your street, your job, your whānau or your community. It identifies how these risks stack and connect and identifies patterns — because when we understand patterns, we are less easily manipulated and less easily frightened. It also focuses on agency - what you can do to prepare, how you can look after others. How to make your voice heard and how not to become fuel for the “divide on purpose” politics that thrive on anger, misinformation and mistrust.
That is why I have written Divided on Purpose: Global Risks 2026 – How They Will Affect You. It is written for anyone trying to make sense of what is happening around them and ahead of them — and wondering what, if anything, they can do.
The report sets out ten major risks shaping 2026, explains what is happening, why it matters and how it may reach your street, your job, your whānau or your community. It identifies how these risks stack and connect and identifies patterns — because when we understand patterns, we are less easily manipulated and less easily frightened. It also focuses on agency - what you can do to prepare, how you can look after others. How to make your voice heard and how not to become fuel for the “divide on purpose” politics that thrive on anger, misinformation and mistrust.
Every year in January, risk reports from the great and the good appear online that help decision makers understand what may lie ahead. They are carefully researched and extremely valuable. The difficulty for many people is that they can feel distant from daily life. They're insightful, but not always grounded in how risk is already showing up in homes, workplaces and neighbourhoods.
This report - also carefully researched - is designed to close that gap.
Divided on Purpose: Global Risks 2026 – How They Will Affect You is an early, people-centred contribution to the global risk reporting cycle. It looks at the major forces shaping the year ahead but does so from a different starting point - not the boardroom table or mountain top summit but the places where people actually live and the experiences we share.
Risks include wars that widen or refuse to end. Democracies under strain. Cost pressures that never quite ease. AI systems making decisions about us. Lies that look like truth. Climate stress that is now part of the background of our lives. None of these sit neatly in isolation. They interact. They compound. They fuel the Polycrisis Engine driving the world around us.
Conflict drives humanitarian crisis. Humanitarian crisis drives displacement. Displacement is politicised into polarisation. Polarisation weakens democracy. Authoritarianism grows. Technology accelerates all of it. Climate stress makes every step harder. The engine revs harder.
This report is the first in this year's PR Horizons series of early start risk and reputation analyses designed to aid sense-making in daily life. It sets out the main risks for us in 2026, explains how they connect, acknowledges those already living in the middle of crisis and focuses on practical agency — what preparation looks like, how communities support one another and how people can make themselves heard without being dragged into deliberate division.
The world is complex but it is not incomprehensible. With clear explanation and decent information, we can meet what's ahead with courage and with steadfastness rather than resignation or overwhelm.
You can download the report below or I can send you a copy. Share it freely. Use it in discussion. My hope is simple - that it helps people see the bigger picture more clearly and equips them to manage what's ahead.
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Divided on Purpose - Global Risks 2026 and How They Affect You
Download the report to read the first edition of Divided on Purpose. It explains the risks ahead in 2026, why they are interconnected and what they could mean for daily life. It is designed to support clear thinking, calm understanding and a stronger sense of agency in uncertain times.