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Systems Thinking: Coping with 21st Century Problems others but to kill thousands. What are the top three lessons relative to command, control, and communications that this event tells you? 8. In the story of David and Goliath, a young shepherd lad with an excellent track record for protecting his father’s flock from the bear and the lion is pitted against a fully armed professional soldier, a giant of a man. David resists attempts to equip him with defensive armor for the fray, focusing entirely on offense and relying solely on his trusty slingshot and five smooth pebbles from the brook. Is this story in any sense relevant to today’s terror-strewn world of asymmetric threats? What role is the United States being made to play? Is a change of role desirable or feasible? Can a Goliath win in this world? How? And what are the five pebbles that a David needs for victory, recognizing that in the Bible character’s case only one was needed?
Endnotes
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1. Churchill, W., We Shall Fight on the Beaches, House of Commons, June 4, 1940. 2. U.S. Declaration of Independence, U.S. Congress, National Archives, July 4, 1776. 3. Waldrop, M. M., Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1992. 4. Weinberg, G. M., An Introduction to General Systems Thinking, Dorset House, New York, 2001. 5. Donne, J., Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, Folcroft Library, 1973, [Meditation XVII]. 6. Ashkenas, R., et al., The Boundaryless Organization: Breaking the Chains of Organization Structure, Jossey-Bass, New York, 2002. 7. The eponymous creature in the movie The Blob (based on a story by Irving Millgate) could be said to be a system, however. 8. Reductionism is the principle tool of science that asserts explanations of phenomena are necessarily found by reducing the whole to its basic constituent parts, to the level of physics, and observing their behavior. If that is so, then why do chemistry and biology exist? 9. Simply Google systemic failure and observe the breadth of application of this term. 10. Hammer, J., and M. Champy, Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution, HarperBusiness, New York, 1994. 11. Gharajedaghi, J., Systems Thinking: Managing Chaos and Complexity: A Platform for Designing Business Architecture, Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford, United Kingdom, 1999. 12. According to the article in the New York Times, October 31, 1971. 13. Churchman, C. W., The Systems Approach, Dell Books, New York, 1979. 14. Surowiecki, J., The Wisdom of Crowds, Random House, New York, 2004. 15. Resnick, M., Turtles, Termites and Traffic Jams, MIT Press, Boston, 1997. 16. Hock, D., Birth of the Chaordic Age, Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco, 1999. 17. Bronowski, J., “The Music of the Spheres,” in The Ascent of Man, Little Brown, New York, 1976. 18. John 3:8 (King James Version). 19. Christensen, C. M., The Innovator’s Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business, Collins, New York, 2003.
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