Policy and Complex Systems
but they are still vulnerable to asymmetric behavior because of their reliance upon fully defining the policy and its delivery processes in advance .
Emergent strategies are designed to deal with change , and respond both proactively ( using foresight and systems thinking ) and reactively to asymmetric behavior . Policies using emergent strategies are more likely to be complied with , since the use of asymmetric behavior will have limited / short-term effectiveness .
Table 1 shows key characteristics of the three strategies
4 . Systems-of-Systems
A systems-of-systems is defined as a set or arrangement of component systems that :
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�� results when independent and useful component systems are integrated into a larger system that delivers unique capabilities ; delivers a higher order goal through bringing together multiple component policies and agents ; are loose-coupled systems where autonomous component policies are brought together to deliver a high order goal , while the autonomous component policies continue to deliver their own specific goals ; establishes a separate system to enable component policies and agents to work together ; and does not integrate the component policies or agents .
Distributed ownership of individual components represents a risk problem for any policy systems-of-systems . Since the systems-of-systems policyowner does not control the political process or the component policies , governance becomes significantly more complicated and must change to accommodate the realities of a policy systems-of-systems . Many different organizations have influence over or own pieces of the systems-of-systems , yet it is unlikely that a single organization will own the entire systems-of-systems . Without an overall systems-of-systems governance strategy and process , it is likely that the individual component policyowners will develop policies according to their localized priorities , resulting in negative local effects deriving from the systems-of-systems .
To enable policy systems-of-systems to deliver unique goals , the complex policyowner establishes :
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At the political level , a compelling case to gain and maintain political support . This will often include negotiating trade-offs to obtain the necessary support . At the operational level , an umbrella system to enable the component policies to work together . This bringing together of the component policies is done through establishing a shell that allows a ‘ plug-and-play ’ approach with the component policies being added , changed , and removed as required , and with these component systems remaining effectively unchanged — the systems-of-systems strategy does not attempt to fully integrate the component policies .
Policy systems-of-systems introduce a new set of issues that have significant implications for governance . The following list of characteristics captures the essence of how a policy systems-of-systems differs from a standalone policy :
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