News Releases
| Events/Announcements
Chaos, Complexity & Public Policy: Interview Available
The Center's director, Irene Sanders, was a guest on dialogue, the
award-winning radio and TV program of the Woodrow Wilson International
Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. In this wide-ranging 30 minute interview, she and program host, John Milewski, covered a range of topics from the economy to cyber security to nuclear proliferation, all designed to demonstrate the usefulness of complexity science to strategic thinking, foresight development and national security. To see the program, click here
Editorial Board Announcement
The Center's executive director, Irene Sanders, has been named to the Editorial Board for the International Journal of Complexity in Leadership and Management (IJCLM).
IJCLM is an international peer-reviewed journal. It aims to promote a deeper comprehension and to provide dialogue across country borders and cultures on the issues of complexity in leadership and management. In this respect, it aims to serve as a platform where new philosophies, theories, empirical research findings and case studies can be published and shared internationally. For more information: www.inderscience.com or contact Irene at info@complexsys.org
Center's Executive Director to Speak in Singapore
Center director Irene Sanders will speak on the opening day of the International Risk Assessment and Horizon Scanning Symposium IRAHSS, which will be held October 13-14, 2008 in Singapore.
The Symposium is being sponsored by the Centre of Excellence for National Security and the National Security Coordination Secretariat. Her presentation will describe a new complexity-based framework for strategic thinking and planning. For more information, click here.
Book Announcement
New Urbanism and Beyond: Designing Cities for the Future
Best defined as the art of shaping the built environment, urban design seeks to understand and analyze the variety of forces—social, economic, cultural, legal, ecological, and aesthetic—that affect how we live. The complex challenges facing cities today—scarcity of resources, growing economic divisions, and rampant sprawl, among others—are forcing a reconsideration of urban design. New Urbanism, a leading movement within urban design, advocates a return to small-town urban forms: human-scale, pedestrian-friendly streets, a reinvigoration of cities, and a stop to suburban sprawl.
This new volume, drawing on a conference and debates at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, comprehensively examines New Urbanism today and speculates about it’s future. New Urbanism and Beyond is both a comprehensive primer on urban design and a provocation for practitioners, historians, and citizens everywhere. The Center's executive director, T. Irene Sanders, is a contributing author with her essay entitled, "Complex Systems Thinking and New Urbanism." A PDF file of her essay can be found by clicking here.
The book's editor, Tigran Haas, is the Assistant Professor of Urban Planning and Design at the School of Architecture and the Built Environment, Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Published by
Rizzoli/New York.
Creating a Sustainable Future in a Complex World
On October 27th Irene Sanders, the Center's executive director,
participated in a symposium sponsored by The Smithsonian Associates
and the Institute for Defense Analysis. She talked about the impact of
complex systems research on the role of foresight in intelligence analysis
and intelligence-led policy development.
Center’s Executive Director to speak at workshop sponsored by the Director of National Intelligence and the U.S. Army War College
Irene Sanders will be the closing-day keynote speaker for the Second Annual Proteus “Futures” Academic Workshop---Creative Strategic Intelligence Analysis and Decision Making within the Elements of National Power—being sponsored by the U.S. Army War College and the Director of National Intelligence, and held at the Center for Strategic Leadership, Carlisle Barracks, PA. The workshop will explore complexity in the future global security environment and its discrete threats and opportunities. It will also examine Proteus related new and innovative concepts, strategies and processes to meet 21st century United States national security challenges. For more information visit:
https://www.carlisle.army.mil/proteus/workshop/
Complex Systems Research and Intelligence Analysis
The Center is involved in a number of intelligence-related projects designed to improve analytic methodology and outcomes through the use of insights and tools from complex systems research. In these projects, the Center’s focus is on
helping individuals and organizations improve their strategic thinking capabilities, which leads to greater insight about the present and foresight about the future. The Center provides seminars, training, briefings, specialized reports and often functions in an ongoing advisory role. For more information contact: Irene Sanders, info@complexsys.org
Combating Terrorism in Southeast Asia
Center Director, Irene Sanders, spoke on the opening panel of PASOC (Pacific
Area Special Operations Command) conference -- Influencing the Future of
Terrorism in Southeast Asia: A Multinational SOF Approach. This conference,
held April 3-7, 2006 in Hawaii, brought together Special Operations Forces
and other military and government leaders from 23 countries. She also
facilitated a week-long conference working group focused on making
recommendations to combat the evolving threat of terrorism in Southeast
Asia. For more information, please contact Irene Sanders at:
info@complexsys.org.
Center's Executive Director Speaks in Finland
Irene Sanders, the Center's executive director, delivered three major presentations in Helsinki February 14-15, 2006. She spoke to the Confederation of Finnish Industries, the Ministry of Environment and the Futures Sparring Forum.
Her presentations shared a common theme--complexity as a new framework for developing foresight about the future.
Her trip was sponsored by the Finland Futures Research Centre at the Turku School of Economics and Business Administration
Event Highlights
Fear, Complexity and Environmental
Management in the 21st Century.
An Afternoon with Michael Crichton
In Collaboration
with The Smithsonian Associates
Isn’t it interesting how his novels always seem to pre-date
some real-world scientific discovery, technological development or headline
event?
Michael
Crichton, mega-selling author and creator of the modern
techno-thriller, has helped millions of readers understand the meaning,
usefulness and potential dangers of science and technology at the cutting-edge.
At a special event on
Sunday afternoon, November 6, 2005, he talked with us about how emerging scientific discoveries have informed
his writing—from The Andromeda Strain to Jurassic
Park to television’s ER, and his most recent novel, State
of Fear —and what he’s learned from his behind-the-scenes research.
He also shared his thoughts about the importance of sound science as
the under-girding framework for public policy-making in the 21st century.
Book Announcement
Complexity
as a Sensemaking Framework
By Mika Aaltonen, Theodor Barth, John L. Casti, Eve Mitleton-Kelly
and T. Irene Sanders
Published by Finland Futures Research Centre, 2005
Insights from complex adaptive systems research are used in this book
as a theory-constitutive metaphor to reconceptualize and rethink some
of the vital issues in organizations’ everyday practice. It sheds new
light on methodology, co-evolutionary integration, disordered systems,
and business simulation. It also includes, “Complexity as a Sensemaking
Framework, “ co-authored by Mika Aaltonen and T. Irene Sanders, which
examines and extends the definition of foresight methodologies using
a complex adaptive systems framework
You can place your order online.
Smithsonian Course on Complexity Held May 2004
In collaboration with the Resident Associate Program of the Smithsonian
Institution, the Center presented Strategic Thinking in a Complex
World during the month of May 2004. This groundbreaking one-month
course was designed to give participants a working knowledge of complexity
science with practical applications to life, work and world events.
Working with both scientific and artistic collaborators, this course
incorporated a variety of methods and media including—photography, art,
music, dance, and architecture. Guest collaborators included: Andy Ilachinski,
PhD, physicist/photographer; Symmes Gardner, director, Center for Art
and Visual Culture, University of Maryland Baltimore County; and David
Rejeski, director, Foresight and Governance Project, Woodrow Wilson
International Center for Scholars.
"This interdisciplinary course will stretch your thinking
and aesthetic sensibilities. Through the exploration of complexity,
you'll see the world in new ways."
Angelo S. Ioffreda
VP, Internal Communications
Sodexho USA
Center Releases Landmark
Report on the Use of Complexity Science
On October 28, 2003 the Center released a landmark report,
The
Use of Complexity Science: A Survey of Federal Departments and Agencies,
Private Foundations, Universities, and Independent Education and Research
Centers.The authors found that the use of complexity science
and its state-of-the-art technologies for research and policy planning
purpose has been growing rapidly since 9/11. The report shows that ten
out of fifteen federal departments are involved in complexity science
research and identified three broad categories of complexity science
activity overall: research, business and education. Very few federal
departments or agencies, however, are using complexity-based approaches
in a "strategic" sense--to address broad system issues and
challenges.
As the first survey of its type, it is not intended to present a comprehensive
view of all that it is taking place. It will, however, give the reader
a big picture sense, a broad sampling of how complexity science is being
used in the United States. The survey was funded by the U.S. Department
of Education at the request of Secretary Rod Paige. Click here to read
the News Release.
For more information contact Irene Sanders, 202-429-3733 or email info@complexsys.org.