About

Creator of Polytunity

I’m Yuen Yuen Ang, Alfred Chandler Chair Professor of Political Economy at Johns Hopkins. A central theme in my work is how societies adapt to disruption, or why they become stuck—beginning in the context of China’s transformation and extending recently to multipolarity and AI.

I’m proud to work with my talented team: Prakhar, Adeola, Emika, Kaushar, and Lily.

What is Polytunity?

Polycrisis has been an apocalyptic viral term of the 2020s, describing the entanglement of global threats and the fear and paralysis it induces. As the term is promoted by powerful institutions and authority figures, it is instinctive to echo them.

So, why do I counter that we’re not living in a time of polycrisis, bur rather—polytunity?

That’s not because I’m optimistic—but because I’m realistic. Real transformation only becomes possible when the old order breaks down.

Normally, people avoid taking on deep, difficult changes until they’re forced to.

Furthermore, the more certain individuals are invested in the old older, the more they mourn and resist change.

Proponents of the “polycrisis” narrative present it as a global crisis. But is it really global? Does it truly speak for everyone? Or does it project the anxiety of a minority who still commands the loudspeaker but fears that it is losing control?

Polytunity goes beyond naming fear. It names the opening created by disruption. A once-in-a-generation chance to rethink our assumptions and systems and meaningfully include new voices for a hyper-complex, multipolar world.

What is AIM?

If polytunity names possibility, AIM is the paradigm—think: an intellectual operating system—I’m advancing to seize the moment for transformation:

Adaptive: seeing societies as complex, evolving systems
Inclusive: amplifying diverse solutions beyond an idealized West
Moral: confronting how power shapes knowledge and policy

AIM is rooted in two decades of research, particularly my books, How China Escaped the Poverty Trap and China’s Gilded Age. You can also find a short introduction in these open-access essays: Polytunity, The World Order After 2025, AIM Political Economy.

What you’ll find here

This Substack is the home of The Polytunity Project. It also serves as an interactive hub for my course, From Polycrisis to Polytunity, taught at Johns Hopkins University.

Here you’ll find:

Essays from my students (see Polytunity: Voices from Gen-Z Series)
My essays and speeches on shifting paradigms in a disrupted world
A forthcoming series on Adapting to AI’s Disruptions
Expert & practitioner forums (coming soon)
Multilingual translations (coming soon)