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A strong Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) is beneficial to all Canadians. The CAF provide necessary security for the nation, North America, and internationally. The process of building a suitable and sustainable force to meet their mandate, as set by the Government of Canada, is time-intensive and expensive. This situation underscores the necessity of retaining well-trained personnel to allow the CAF to accomplish their missions, while ensuring the next generation is adequately prepared to carry on and adapt to new government priorities. Currently, maintaining an adequate number of military members is a struggle and research is required to better understand why this is the case. Rittel and Webber's 'Wicked Problem' theory, in which social policy issues are unsolvable and instead need to be managed indefinitely, provides valuable insight. To demonstrate that the retention problem within the CAF is a wicked problem, a combination of primary and secondary data analysis on the CAF, and a comparative case study were completed. As a wicked problem, the CAF need to recognize that retention is an issue that can only be managed, not solved. While clear similarities exist between the CAF and NZDF, especially around military families, the Canadian provincial system, compared to the New Zealand unitary system, creates additional complications, none of which the CAF can fix. Future research is required to understand the retention issue in Canada, specifically in terms of the potential relationship between military equipment procurement and retention, as was recognized within the NZDF. ; October 2020

Since World War II, it seems like the result of America's participation in war has fallen short of our goals. We enter with the best of intentions, seeking a low cost, swift conflict and an overwhelming victory without excessive casualties (American, civilian or even enemy). During the opening stages of these conflicts the overriding question seems to be "what is the exit strategy?" Muddled in there may be an idea of what victory might look like. We seem reluctant to ask, "How do we win?" and instead wring our hands saying, "Tell me how this ends." This paper discusses how for American policy makers and military leadership, understanding war as a wicked problem is the first step necessary to reframe our understanding and response to the need to use military force. This site displays abstracts of MOC Warfighter articles. Department of Defense CAC-authenticated users may download full copies of the articles at this site. Others may request copies of specified articles by contacting the MOC Warfighter administrator.

Income and wealth inequality is on the rise in the United States of America. While a select few are seeing their wealth increase dramatically, the large majority of Americans are struggling economically. The United States' stubbornness to remain chained to a rugged version of capitalism is the root cause of the inequality that is running rampant in the United States. To reach a large audience, I created a rap song to convey the feelings of most Americans. This rap song outlines the unfair treatment of the American people, the ineptitude of the government, and the large sums of money billionaires create, which leads to widespread inequality.

In 2009 I published a law review article that both explained why I believed that climate change was a "super wicked" problem for lawmakers and offered specific recommendations for ways that any laws addressing climate change should be crafted in light of its super wicked nature. The purpose of this subsequent Article is to revisit, modify, and update my earlier analysis based on the actual events of the past decade. Such hindsight analysis necessarily requires acknowledging, a bit embarrassingly, the things that I got wrong. Though, in my partial (not complete!) defense, I am in good company given the wholly unpredictable and truly whipsaw nature of the nation's changing political landscape between 2009 and the present. The only thing that links the presidencies of Barack Obama and Donald Trump is the highly remote nature of their electoral prospects when each announced their respective candidacies for President. In every other way, it is hard to imagine two more different people across every possible personal and professional dimension, including their views on climate change. The Article is divided into three parts. Part I reviews my 2009 thesis and focuses on what I got wrong. After all, I might as well confess those errors up front and not beat around the bush. Part II addresses the literal elephant in the room—the 2016 election of Donald Trump as President of the United States—and contends that Trump's election and his conduct since taking the oath of office are expressions of the super wicked nature of climate change. Or to say it a bit more provocatively, yes, President Trump is super wicked. (I feel better already.) Part III takes stock of where we are now by exploring how we can best address climate change in light of lessons learned since 2009. Our prospects today for addressing climate change are far less promising than I had hoped in 2009. Time is not costless in the fight against climate change, and each year since 2009 has further set us back.

The Commonwealth's periodic attempts at housing and urban policy reform since the 1940s have been made in the face of a federal structure that allocates responsibility for such matters to the states. This paper explores the experience of federal governments since the 1940s, considering the various styles of political leadership, varying ways in which the problem has been framed, and differing policy settings that have been employed in resolving policy challenges. The historical narrative clarifies phases of active engagement and reaction, linking these to fiscal asymmetry and distribution of federal-state responsibilities, historical 'gateway' events, and transitions in policy paradigms. We argue that housing is a perpetual concern (both a basic need and an aspirational objective) and is so integrally related to other policy domains-in which decisions may have unintended consequences for housing-that it is never conclusively resolved. The complexity (and uncertainty) consequent upon these inter-relationships ensures that housing remains a wicked problem. The visual metaphor of a complexity cascade, however, may assist a more nuanced appreciation of the direction of policy travel. © 2015 Institute of Public Administration Australia.

Old-growth forest is an often-used term that seems to be intuitively understood by ecologists and forest managers, and the wide-ranging discussion of its social and ecological values suggests it has currency among the general public as well. However, a decades-long discourse regarding a generally acceptable definition of old-growth, in both conceptual and practical terms, has gone largely unresolved. This is partially because old-growth is simultaneously an ecological state, a value-laden social concept, and a polarizing political phenomenon, each facet of its identity influencing the others in complex ways. However, the public, scientific, and management discourse on old-growth has also suffered from simplifying tendencies which are at odds with old-growth's inherently complex nature. Such complexity confounds simple or rationalistic management approaches, and the forest management arena has witnessed the collision of impassioned and contradictory opinions on the 'right way' to manage old-growth forests, ranging from strict preservationism to utilitarian indifference. What is clear is that management approaches that circumvent, trivialize, eliminate, or ignore old-growth's inherent complexity may do so at the expense of the very characteristics from which old-growth derives its perceived value. We explore the paradoxes presented by the various approaches to old-growth description and definition and present some plausible paths forward for old-growth theory and management, with a particular focus on managed forests.

The lack of shared expert knowledge capacity in the U.S. Congress has created a critical weakness in our democratic process. Along with bipartisan cooperation, many contemporary and urgent questions before our legislators require nuance, genuine deliberation and expert judgment. Congress, however, is missing adequate means for this purpose and depends on outdated and in some cases antiquated systems of information referral, sorting, communicating, and convening. Congress is held in record low esteem by the public today. Its failings have been widely analyzed and a multitude of root causes have been identified. This paper does not put forward a simple recipe to fix these ailments, but argues that the absence of basic knowledge management in our legislature is a critical weakness. Congress struggles to make policy on complex issues while it equally lacks the wherewithal to effectively compete on substance in today's 24 hour news cycle.This paper points out that Congress is not so much venal and corrupt as it is incapacitated and obsolete. And, in its present state, it cannot serve the needs of American democracy in the 21st Century.The audience for this paper is those who are working in the open government, civic technology and transparency movements as well as other foundations, think tanks and academic entities. It is also for individuals inside and outside of government who desire background about Congress' current institutional dilemmas, including lack of expertise.

The position of small rural schools is precarious in much of rural Canada today. What is to be done about small schools in rural communities which are often experiencing population decline and aging, economic restructuring, and the loss of employment and services? We argue this issue is a classic "wicked" policy problem. Small schools activists have a worldview that is focused on maintaining infrastructure and even community survival, while school boards are mandated to focus on the efficient provision of educational services across wider geographies. Is it even possible to mitigate the predictable conflict and zero-sum games that arise with the decision to close small schools? That is the subject of this paper, which draws on poststructural and actor network theory. We suggest that wicked problems cannot be addressed satisfactorily through formulas and data-driven technical-rational processes. They can only be addressed through flexible, dialogical policy spaces that allow people who have radically different worldviews to create dynamic, bridging conversations. Fundamentally, we argue that what is required are new spaces and modes of governance that are sufficiently networked, open, and flexible to manage the complexity and the mutability of genuinely participatory democracy.De nos jours, la situation des petites écoles rurales est précaire dans beaucoup de milieux ruraux au Canada. Que faire des petites écoles dans les milieux ruraux souvent aux prises avec une population vieillissante et en déclin, une restructuration économique, et une perte d'emplois et de services? Nous soutenons que cette situation est un problème classique de politique « pernicieuse ». Les activistes des petites écoles ont une vision du monde axée sur le maintien de l'infrastructure, voire la survie communautaire, alors que les conseils scolaires sont chargés de miser sur la prestation efficace de services éducationnels sur de plus grandes étendues. Est-il même possible de mitiger le conflit prévisible et les jeux à somme nulle qui découlent de la décision de fermer de petites écoles? Voilà le sujet de cet article, qui puise dans la théorie post-structurale et la théorie du réseau d'acteurs. Nous proposons que les problèmes pernicieux ne peuvent être abordés de façon satisfaisante par les formules et les processus technico-rationnels axés sur les données. Ils ne peuvent être résolus que par des politiques souples et dialogiques qui permettent aux gens avec des visions du monde radicalement différentes de créer des conversations dynamiques qui appuient le rapprochement. Dans le fond, nous militons en faveur de nouveaux espaces et de nouveaux modes de gouvernance qui sont suffisamment réseautés, ouverts et souples pour gérer la complexité et la mutabilité d'une démocratie authentiquement participative.

Just about everyone agrees that the Irish housing system is in crisis. It is dysfunctional and its provision is unequal: think of the homeless, the sofa surfers, generation renters and those in sub-standard accommodation. Our politicians also recognise that there is a problem, and before each general election, all sides vow to make changes. So why does this crisis continue?

Governments around the world are expending considerable time and resources framing strategies and policies to deliver energy security. The term 'energy security' has quietly slipped into the energy lexicon without any meaningful discourse about its meaning or assumptions. An examination of explicit and inferred definitions finds that the concept is inherently slippery because it is polysemic in nature having multiple dimensions and taking on different specificities depending on the country (or continent), timeframe or energy source to which it is applied. But what does this mean for policymakers? Can traditional policy approaches be used to address the problem of energy security or does its- polysemic qualities mean that it should be treated as a 'wicked' problem? To answer this question, the paper assesses energy security against nine commonly cited characteristics of wicked policy problems and finds strong evidence of 'wickedness'.

The situation of small-scale coastal fisheries in Sierra Leone is dire, with diminishing fish stocks and fish sizes due to massive industrial fishing and widespread use of banned nets by artisanal fishers. Repeated attempts have been made by fisheries management to improve the situation, but with little or no success. Superficially, it might seem that the two main causes of the problem - foreign industrial fishing and damaging artisanal nets – could be readily dealt with, but closer analysis reveals that tackling these causes is immensely complicated. This is because their roots lie deep in Sierra Leone's history, culture and politics, and any attempt to deal with them could lead to unintended consequences which might make the situation worse not better. Does this mean there is a 'wicked problem' here – i.e. a problem so intractable that it has no practicable solution? This is the issue which the present study addresses. The research is based on extensive fieldwork carried out in two large fishing coastal fishing communities in Sierra Leone (Tombo and Goderich) during April and May 2017 when 200 open-ended questionnaires (SQs) were administered and 51 key informant interviews (KIs) were conducted. The study concludes that the situation faced by small-scale fisheries in these communities meets several, but by no means all, of the criteria of a wicked problem, and that while a definitive solution to the problem is unfeasible, stakeholders could adopt strategies to alleviate its more harmful consequences. ; Until 3 August 2020, this article can be accessed at: https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1bEP6,714MZ2eb

Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Surging amounts of waste are reported globally and especially in lower-income countries, with negative consequences for health and the environment. Increasing concern has been raised for the limited progress achieved in practice by diverse sets of policies and programmes. Waste management is a wicked problem characterised by multilayered interdependencies, complex social dynamics and webs of stakeholders. Interactions among these generate unpredictable outcomes that can be missed by decision makers through their understanding and framing of their context. This article aims to identify possible sources of persistent problems by focussing on what captures, shapes and limits the attention of stakeholders and decision-makers, drawing on the attention-based view from organisation theory. The theory describes the process through which issues and opportunities are noticed and how these are translated into actions, by focussing on the influencers at the individual, organisational and context scale. Views on issues and opportunities for waste management were collected in a series of fieldwork activities from 60 participants representing seven main types of stakeholders in the typical lower-middle income Kenyan city of Kisumu. Through a thematic analysis guided by the attention-based view, we identified patterns and misalignment of views, especially between government, community-based organisations and residents, which may contribute to persistent waste problems in Kisumu. Some point to detrimental waste handling practices, from separation to collection and treatment, as the main cause of issues. For others, these practices are due to a poor control of such practices and enforcement of the law. This study's major theoretical contribution is extending the application of attention theory to multi-stakeholder problems and to non-formalized organisations, namely residents and to the new field of waste management. This novel lens contributes a greater understanding of waste issues and their ...

Surging amounts of waste are reported globally and especially in lower-income countries, with negative consequences for health and the environment. Increasing concern has been raised for the limited progress achieved in practice by diverse sets of policies and programmes. Waste management is a wicked problem characterised by multilayered interdependencies, complex social dynamics and webs of stakeholders. Interactions among these generate unpredictable outcomes that can be missed by decision makers through their understanding and framing of their context. This article aims to identify possible sources of persistent problems by focussing on what captures, shapes and limits the attention of stakeholders and decision-makers, drawing on the attention-based view from organisation theory. The theory describes the process through which issues and opportunities are noticed and how these are translated into actions, by focussing on the influencers at the individual, organisational and context scale. Views on issues and opportunities for waste management were collected in a series of fieldwork activities from 60 participants representing seven main types of stakeholders in the typical lower-middle income Kenyan city of Kisumu. Through a thematic analysis guided by the attention-based view, we identified patterns and misalignment of views, especially between government, community-based organisations and residents, which may contribute to persistent waste problems in Kisumu. Some point to detrimental waste handling practices, from separation to collection and treatment, as the main cause of issues. For others, these practices are due to a poor control of such practices and enforcement of the law. This study's major theoretical contribution is extending the application of attention theory to multi-stakeholder problems and to non-formalized organisations, namely residents and to the new field of waste management. This novel lens contributes a greater understanding of waste issues and their management in Africa that is ...

Terrorist attacks can be seen as the ultimate wicked problem. After 9/11, terrorists moved from so-called 'spectacular' events to relatively low-intensity attacks against individuals and groups. The emergence of what has become known as the 'home-grown' terrorist has added a further dimension to the 'wicked' nature of the problem. This paper considers the UK's CONTEST and PREVENT strategies as a policy response to the threats from terrorism and the impact that the policies themselves can have on the radicalization of individuals. The author highlights some of the limitations of the PREVENT strand of the overall strategy and the constraints that are imposed on government policies by failing to take a holistic perspective on the nature of the problem.

Networks are everywhere. Health systems and public health settings are experimenting with multifarious forms. Governments and providers are heavily investing in networks with an expectation that they will facilitate the delivery of better services and improve health outcomes. Yet, we lack a suitable conceptual framework to evaluate the effectiveness and sustainability of clinical and health networks. This paper aims to present such a framework to assist with rigorous research and policy analysis. The framework was designed as part of a project to evaluate the effectiveness and sustainability of health networks. We drew on systematic reviews of the literature on networks and communities of practice in health care, and on theoretical and evidence-based studies of the evaluation of health and non-health networks. Using brainstorming and mind-mapping techniques in expert advisory group sessions, we assessed existing network evaluation frameworks and considered their application to extant health networks. Feedback from stakeholders in network studies that we conducted was incorporated. The framework encompasses network goals, characteristics and relationships at member, network and community levels, and then looks at network outcomes, taking into account intervening variables. Finally, the short-term, medium-term and long-term effectiveness of the network needs to be assessed. The framework provides an overarching contribution to network evaluation. It is sufficiently comprehensive to account for many theoretical and evidence-based contributions to the literature on how networks operate and is sufficiently flexible to assess different kinds of health networks across their life-cycle at community, network and member levels. We outline the merits and limitations of the framework and discuss how it might be further tested.