tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1414025411716568353.post1981243428358681738..comments2023-10-17T05:20:29.635-04:00Comments on Shadowed Forest of World Politics: The Complexity of Being Hegemon: America in the MideastWilliam deB. Millshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07103937881679464836noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1414025411716568353.post-32889069029400839612010-12-30T15:12:21.535-05:002010-12-30T15:12:21.535-05:00For those interested in analyzing, complexity theo...For those interested in analyzing, complexity theory warns that criticality threatens a complex system. System dynamics offers a modeling approach to explain the details by tracking each underlying dynamic separately and explaining how the "point of criticality"--in complex systems language--or "tipping point"--in system dynamics language--is reached.<br /><br />It is not quite accurate to equate these two terms, but the point is valid to the degree that a tipping point might represent falling over the edge of criticality if it were serious enough to destroy the system.<br /><br />In terms of U.S.-Mideast relations, one could imagine many tipping points, e.g., a shift from violence to negotiation as the conflict resolution method of choice or the realization that right-wing Israeli politicians do not share American values. Such tipping points would not exemplify falling over the edge of criticality. One could also imagine a tipping point that might destroy the U.S.-Mideast political system, however, which thus would represent falling over the edge of criticality, namely, a war with Iran.<br /><br />Here, complexity theory provides the insight that an apparently powerful system can collapse suddenly, while system dynamics could be used to track dominance change among the various dynamics that cause behavior in that system.William deB. Millshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07103937881679464836noreply@blogger.com