Search results

Abstract Latin America is the most violent region in the world. Yet, decades of political and financial investment by the international community have not had the desired results. Using the work of the European Union in the Northern Triangle of Central America as a case study, this article asks what explains this failure. Utilizing the conceptual framework of Complexity and Human System Dynamics, it argues that current policies actually entrench the pattern of conditions which lead to, and sustain, violence. It shows how, by reconceptualizing this problem using the concepts of Complexity, policies could be made more effective and sustainable.

It is common today, even in the European media, to treat the current crisis of the European Union almost exclusively as an economic crisis. The present article pretends to show that such a focus is not only wrong but is indeed dangerous for the future development of the European Union as a whole. The article will argue that the present economic crisis simply aggravated – and a lot – a crisis of legitimacy through which the European Union has been passing for some time. Showing that the anti-European tendencies which are spreading throughout the countries of the continent threaten the very future of the European project, the article will make suggestion on reforms for the future development of the EU, alerting to the necessity to finally elaborate once again a coherent argument for the continuation of the European integration process which puts the European population at the heart of the political process instead of just austerity.

Abstract Regionalism in South America was once described to the author by a senior Brazilian Diplomat as a 'pragmatic tool to address specific problems'. Yet, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in South America – the worst-hit region in the world – regionalism has been conspicuous by its absence as such a tool, despite the fact that international organizations and other actors have pointed to the urgent need for regional cooperation on the subject. What explains this lack of regional cooperation? Utilizing the conceptual frameworks of Complexity and Human Systems Dynamics, this article argues that regionalism in South America actually suffers from a lack of coherence. As such, some suggestions will be made throughout the article as to how to address this incoherence in response to COVID-19 and, as such, be able to address some of the specific challenges brought about by the pandemic. It is argued that the policy-focus should be very narrow, and that the focus should be on the economic impact and vaccines. Furthermore, the article suggests that regional cooperation should happen below the level of national governments. Some suggestions are made as to how this can be achieved. It is shown throughout the article that such narrow, and often sub-national focus can restore some coherence, which will allow for a more effective regional response to the worst pandemic experienced in 100 years.

AbstractThe present article argues that the current crisis of the European Union (EU) is much deeper and more profound than many EU officials and analysts care to admit. Taking the so‐called sovereign debt crisis and the refugee crisis as illustrative case studies it is argued that the crisis needs to be reframed as a Complex Adaptive System which is self‐organizing in a deeply incoherent manner and which current EU policies are not only not addressing but exacerbating. As an alternative, the article suggests using Adaptive Action as a framework to identify the conditions which sustain the current dysfunctionality of the European Union and makes concrete suggestions on how these conditions can be altered. Areas of further research are also identified.

This paper assesses why the various initiatives undertaken by the European Union in Honduras have not had the desired impact of reducing the extraordinary levels of violence in the country. The hypothesis put forward is that the EU's approach to the issue of violence has been unsuccessful because it does not match the complexity of the problem encountered. As an alternative, the paper puts forward complexity and human systems dynamics as conceptual frameworks for reinterpreting the issue of violence. It shows that violence is one of the results of an incoherent process of self-organisation which marks Honduras and suggests ways of influencing the conditions that make up this pattern in order to address the problem of violence. It also outlines what this new approach would mean for the actions and policies proposed and implemented by the European Union.

Ever since the end of the Cold War and, in particular, since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, a fierce debate has been taking place both in the academic and the political world about the problems traditional concepts and theories of international relations and foreign policy have in explaining change in international politics. Complexity as a conceptual framework for explaining international politics emerged as a result of this debate and has been making important contributions to it.This article is intended to assess the impact complexity has had on this debate over the last 20 years. It is argued that one can identify three distinct phases of complexity's emergence into the field of international politics. Whilst the framework has been quite successful in explaining change in international politics and developing concepts to adjust foreign policy to the existence of self-organising complex-adaptive systems, the framework still has some way to go in developing clear alternative strategies for the development of foreign policies processes which not only take account of the complexity encountered by policy-makers but use this complexity to improve policy-outcomes. To this end, the article concludes by suggesting areas for further research.