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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: FaultLine who wrote (92998)	4/12/2003 6:28:42 PM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

If I understand the analogy, Ken, there is one flaw in it and that is it takes systems as enclosed entities. In international politics systems interact with one another thus producing results which don't emerge from endogenous forces. The exogenous is maybe not king but a big, big player. Thus, the importance of TV for the Iraqi future, for the importance of travel to see how other countries operate, the importance that they have a sympathetic view of the US, etc. I don't expect single state democracy in Iraq, incidentally. I expect some sort of federation with varying degrees of something we might call democracy within each federation. Looks to me as if the Kurds are further ahead on this score but they could easily skip to the Afghan model.

To: FaultLine who wrote (92998)	4/12/2003 6:48:04 PM
From: paul_philp	Respond to of 281500

Great post, thanks! Thinking about the systems evolution in our political and social structures, and seeing much that lurks within similar to what I have just described, is at the same time a little depressing, because of the constraints it exposes, yet reassurring that the universe has 'its ways'. I think seeing things in terms of systems evolution is a powerful framework. I see the Middle East has a system heading towards collapse so the goal is simply to get the evolution happening again before the collapse spreads. Paul