Rethinking the International System as a Complex Adaptive System
No wonder very few clear empirical relationships have been found over decades of political science . If it is a nonlinear world and we are looking with “ linear vision ,” then we can only catch a small portion . Furthermore , our models of constant effects will miss something fundamental about what we are studying ; as the saying goes , it ’ s like throwing a dead bird to model the flight of a live bird . ( p . 2 )
As this paper advocates , it is time for IR to stop missing out . Hence , the need for IR to embrace complex systems theory , pose much-needed ontological and epistemological questions , and develop a new taxonomy that will improve interoperability between different epistemological communities and provide the basis for nonlinear modeling in IR .
IR is a discipline that traditionally does not shy away from importing theories from other fields of studies . 4 Nevertheless , there has been only limited cross contamination with the field of complexity theory . Arguably , lack of dialogue and interdisciplinarity has largely been caused by a linguistic cleavage among different epistemological communities in the discipline . It appears that while all communities deal with the same field of study and use the same language , each of them has a different cognitive understanding of concepts , terms , and vocabulary .
Lack of cross-contamination among the communities is thus fostered by a lack of understanding among them . An effort of “ translation ” among taxonomies has been attempted in the book Complexity in World Politics : Concepts and Methods of a New Paradigm , edited by Neil E . Harrison ( 2006a ). Where the first two chapters , written by Harrison and Singer , provide a seminal taxonomy of complexity science for the use of social scientist . However , communication is not the sole impediment to the spread of complexity theory in IR . The discipline is also divided among methodological communities . The divisions are furthermore aggravated by the fact that , as Richards ( 2000a ) writes , methodologists are known to “ suffer change ,” especially when they are too comfortable with their own methods ( p . 3 ).
As it is today , the IR literature that has used complexity science is mainly found in the book series titled Princeton Studies in Complexity , and in two collections of essays ; the above-mentioned Complexity in World Politics , and Political Complexity : Nonlinear Models of Politics edited by Richards ( 2000b ). Complexity in World Politics collects ten papers , including : An introductory article by Harrison and Singer ( 2006 ) that compares IR systems theory with complex systems theory . An essay on conflict resolution by Dennis Sandole ( 2006 ) that uses complexity to reconsider “ theories of identity-based conflict in the post-9 / 11 world .” A paper by Walter Clemens ( 2006 ) that uses complex sys-
4 IR has borrowed political theory , philosophy , and history from the humanities ; economics , sociology , and law from other social sciences ; and math , physics , and statistics from natural sciences ( Dunne et al ., 2013 , p . 419 ).
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