Risk Governance, State Capacity, and Critical Human Security: Evolution of Risk Governance in Response to Systemic Risk in the UK and South Korea

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the critical need for inclusive risk governance to address systemic risks that extend beyond health crisis to encompass broader societal, economic, and political dimensions. This article examines the evolution of risk governance in the United Kingdom and South Korea, exploring the intersectionality between state capacity, risk governance, and critical human security. It investigates how different institutional and policy frameworks and political choices influence the evolution of risk governance in two countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. It found that both countries adaptively restructured their institutions and broadened the involvement of diverse stakeholders to address the systemic risk. However, significant challenges persisted in fully integrating diverse perspectives due to the limited capacity of coordination across different actors and scales of government within risk governance. This research calls for a rearticulation of risk governance frameworks that integrate human security and inclusive participation, particularly as risks become increasingly complex and intersect across multiple dimensions of daily life.