SMOKERS’ CORNER: THE CURSE OF 'COLLAPSOLOGY'

For over a decade now, several books have claimed that one country or the other is on the verge of ‘collapse’. Most of these books are about China. Other favourites in this regard include Saudi Arabia, Russia and Pakistan. A large number of these tomes are written by American or European authors. However, so far none of their predictions have come true.

In 2015, two French academics, Pablo Servigne and Raphaël Stevens, coined the term, ‘collapsology’, to define a trans-disciplinary field of study that explores environmental...