Volume 19 Issue 2 

This edition's elections theme was inspired by a conversation with one of our advisors. Theoretically, in its true spirit, a vote enables a person to find their voice, representation, and legitimacy. In practice, however, a vote doesn’t as easily allow one's own ‘choice’ as we would hope.

Several major elections have taken place around the world at the time of writing this, with many more on the horizon. Thomas Lahnthaler explores the paradoxical nature of heading to the polls. Keyaan Williams and Minhaj Aman take on the digital side of things, with Williams tackling e-voting systems – how they work and how they can fail – and Aman examining the use of artificial intelligence to cause chaos in South Asian elections.

It is a grand irony that in times that are meant to provide proof of incoming stability, the one thing we forget is that resilience and continuity take no breaks or shortcuts. On page 44, Matt Minshall visits the crisis of leadership, while on page 18 Elton Cunha and Ricardo Giovenardi take on corporate resilience in Latin America in times of government transition. Ever the voice of reason, Jeannie Barr brings us back to the on-theground realities when she writes about the challenges that resilience professionals face, irrespective of the promise that democratic ideals bring to the table.

The many pages of this edition illustrate an unfortunate truth: that irrespective of the world hitting the voting booths, nothing stops crises and disasters. Crucial work chugs along in whatever capacity and condition possible, regardless of who leads the flocks. Two articles that remind us of this are William Peterson's report on the Baltimore Bridge collapse in the USA, and Dr Jennifer Hesterman's sobering review of the global surge in mass stabbings.

In a world settling into permacrisis, we have to stop and ask: What does a vote mean to us, and how do we ensure that it is worth more than the piece of paper it is stamped on?