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The Global Systems Review Issue 7 April 2009
The Global Systems Review is a periodic e-newsletter that explores critical world issues through the lens of whole systems thinking.
In this Issue:
- Washington Report, April – Reflections on the winds of change in Washington since January 20. More...
- A Whole-of-Government Approach to National Security – Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense, calls for greater integration in policy planning for national security. More...
- Systems Theory and U.S. Foreign Policy – Charles Brown analyzes President Obama’s recent European trip from a systems perspective. More...
Washington Report, April 2009
Louise Diamond
April is a time of great beauty in Washington, with flowers and blossoming trees of every shade in full bloom. It is also a windy season, reminding me of an Old Chinese saying I heard recently:
If the wind changes direction, you can either build a wall or build a windmill.
Since January 20, the wind has dramatically changed direction in Washington. I have been in the city for three months now, focusing on what’s happening in the policy community – those who make and influence the decisions that guide our nation and affect the world. Here’s what I’ve noticed:
The election of Barack Obama has indeed brought about a big shift. His mantra during the campaign, and continuing today, is ‘We’re all in this together.’ He speaks of acting together for shared purpose, and of engaging rather than isolating those with whom we most disagree.
Others too are taking a similar tack. Secretary of Defense, Robert Gages, speaks of the need for a ‘whole-of-government’ approach to our critical security challenges. The National Security Adviser, Gen. James Jones, says that the global economic meltdown, not terrorism, is our greatest security threat. The concept of ‘Smart Power’ (also known as Sustainable Security and 3-D – calling for an approach that links development, defense, and diplomacy) has become conventional wisdom. Think tanks around town are coming out with reports that, no matter what the specific content, make recommendations that call for greater cooperation and policy integration across sectors.
What we are seeing here is, I believe, more than simply a change in personal style, or from a conservative to a liberal agenda. We are seeing the larger planetary shift – from a Newtonian world of separation to a quantum world of interdependence – played out within the national governing story.
The globalization of the economy, and especially its current crisis state, has made apparent to us all what thought leaders have been saying for decades – we live in an interconnected and interdependent world. There is only one family of life on this planet, and it encompasses us all (and not just those of us who walk with two legs). We need each other, or, as Mother Theresa said, ‘We belong to each other.’
I believe the election of Barack Obama, who is speaking from this worldview, is more than the election of a particular individual. I believe it is, at some unconscious level, a realization that this is the world we now live in, and this is the approach most suited to it.
Once we deeply understand our interconnectedness, certain things become obvious.
If indeed we are all in this together, then there are ten principles for right action:
- Find solutions that work for the greater good, not just for a small handful of elites;
- Work together, cooperatively and co-creatively, across all the lines that appear to separate us, to find those solutions;
- Be inclusive of those voices rarely heard, for they too are affected by our choices and may have important pieces of the wisdom otherwise missing from the conversation;
- Appreciate our diversity, recognizing that our differences provide the rich complexity necessary for our overall well-being;
- Operate from integrity, for that is a measure of our wholeness;
- Seek synthesis of opposing views;
- Engage in dialogue, to deepen understanding and to build trust and possibilities for joint action;
- Build connections everywhere, especially where they have been broken or seem most difficult;
- Integrate our approaches to cut across usual areas of specialization.
- Live"glocally", focusing on the well-being of local communities as well as that of the larger global family.
Here, then, is a roadmap for the 21st century, whether we are considering complex global issues, national challenges, or local and family matters. These are the behaviors best aligned with interdependence, and best suited to get results that are sustaining and sustainable.
When we look at this as it plays out in Washington, we immediate notice two strong countervailing forces: we have a political culture still very attached to an adversarial, competitive, and ‘win at all costs’ way of operating; and we have a bureaucratic culture that is highly smoke-stacked (fragmented by topic), turf-oriented, and, in some cases, ego-driven.
When we look at this as it is expressed internationally, we see similar dynamics. The nation state system that operates through power politics is still very much the organizing principle at play, even as most of the greatest global challenges are trans-national in character, and un-responsive to a ‘fix’ by any one single nation. Just as nationally we have the Red-Blue divide, so in the world picture we have the North-South divide. In both places, we have the rich and poor split.
These are not conditions to despair of; rather, they are the opportunities for our growth. For it is the creative tension between the separative ways and the integral ways that allow for change and transformation. This tension is creative because it requires us to re-examine our most basic and in some cases unconscious assumptions, to view things from different perspectives, to extract the best ideas from the different viewpoints, and to synthesize them into new responses.
In systems theory, it is said that systems seek the best fit with their environment. The environment, the context within which we now exist together on this planet, has changed, and so approaches that may have seemed appropriate to earlier times no long provide the best fit. If we always do what we always did, we will always get what we always got is another saying I’m quite fond of.
The wind has shifted direction, and no wall can hold it back. It’s time to build windmills (metaphorically, but also figuratively), and use the winds of change to fuel the growth of these ten principles of right action, especially in our national and international policies. Global Systems Initiatives is creating concrete projects to help the policy community in Washington do just that, applying a whole systems approach to complex global issues. Stay tuned for more information as that develops.
Meanwhile, the other articles in this issue provide some interesting reading on the subject.
A Whole of Government Approach to National Security
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/01/AR2009020101964.html
Systems Approach to Foreign Policy
http://www.undiplomatic.net/2009/04/09/systems-theory-and-us-foreign-policy-obamas-trip-to-europe/
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