Over the coming months, I'll be undertaking research that includes interviews with high-level policymakers in Ireland (think: senators, senior advisors, top civil servants). The goal is to explore the understanding policymakers have of X-risks, including perceived likelihood, classification, prevention, and knowledge of the existence of certain risks.
Elite groups like this are tough to access, particularly for this form of discussion, so the interview schedule will look to be as efficient and effective as possible as eliciting truthful, useful answers.
To this end, I'm interested to hear from others in this community as to what they'd ideally like to ask policymakers on this topic. Specifically:
- What are the key questions you would like to see put to policymakers on this topic?
- Are there any previous interviews or discussions around this topic which you think were conducted particularly effectively?
Feel free to think as wide or narrow on these questions as is useful!
Have you spoken at all with the Centre for Long-term Resilience? They work with UK policy makers on issues related to catastrophic and existential risk, and I imagine would be pretty interested in this project.