One of the peculiar challenges Complexity may present is that the nonlinearity and unpredictability it posits as being fundamental characteristics of complex systems are profoundly subversive of how we have traditionally understood policymaking. Complex adaptive systems are highly sensitive to initial conditions, as well as potentially subject to a variety of both positive and negative feedback loops, making outcomes unpredictable over the long term.
Despised by Bismarck as ’not worth the life of a single German solider’’ and described by Churchill as ‘having too much history to consume’’, the region of the Western Balkans is returning to the agenda. The EU and the USA must step in and show that they are up to this ultimate test of bringing the last remaining non-EU island into the orbit of the Union and NATO.
One of the most under-studied, and perhaps most over-promoted, aspects of American foreign policy is the so-called Mil to Mil Relations, the cultivated ties the US military has with foreign militaries. These Mil to Mil Relations consist of military training and liaison exchanges, joint exercises, and senior level consultations.
As a form of reflectivist critique of the scientific approach to the study of social sciences, constructivism was initially developed as a mostly interpretive metatheory. Its substantial and wide-ranging influence perhaps derives from the fact that what is says seems to be just common sense. Its insights apply to our individual experiences in life; as individuals our identities change over time and so do our interests.
In the words of one local human rights activist, the new North Sudan is going to be a very nasty country. This matters because of the company president Bashir keeps: he gave shelter to Osama bin Laden for five years in the 1990s, and he considers Iran’s Ahmadinejad, Hamas and Hizbollah to be his closest ideological and political friends, despite claiming to be an ally of America in the war on terror
In 2002 Iran was added to the neoconservative-designed ‘Axis of Evil’ and thus declared ripe for US military intervention. Wars are often kicked off accidentally. Indeed, that an incident in the heavily militarised Persian Gulf could be utilised as a casus belli by war profiteers who have overcome obstacles on the political scene is certainly not a matter of sheer fantasy. Urgent action is therefore required to lower the temperatures.
When the USA overthrew the Taliban in 2001 and Saddam Hussein in 2003, many hoped that America could repeat its great foreign policy successes of neutralizing Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and Imperial Japan following World War II. Overthrowing the former permanently moved extraordinarily grave threats to international stability.
On 14 January 2010, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists adjusted the Doomsday Clock from 5 to 6 minutes from midnight in order to encourage progress seen around the globe in two key areas: nuclear weapons and climate change. Their decision was based on the perceived existence of a more hopeful state of world affairs. The clock had been adjusted 18 times since its initial start at seven minutes to midnight
The ‘free marketeers’ continue to take irresponsible risks, plunder the land, poison the seas, sicken whole communities, lay waste to entire regions, and pocket obscene profits.
Following many other Middle Eastern and North African leaders Ben Ali sustained his power through repression, fear, and censorship. His downfall through popular protests stunned the world. However, there is still no guarantee for a new chapter in Tunisian politics.
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