Abstract for: System Dynamics Research in Conflict, Defense, and Security Panel Discussion

The recent attempted or actual overthrow of long incumbent governments in Egypt, Iran, Libya, Algeria, and Tunisia, the continuing engagement of Western powers in a number of counterinsurgencies, and a rise in global religious, nationalist, narco- and cyber-terrorism have highlighted the continuing importance of modeling conflict, defense, and security issues. System Dynamics, because of its ability to integrate political, organizational, and material factors, is ideally suited as a vehicle to investigate these great problems. This potential, however, contrasts greatly with the relative sparseness of academic publications in this area. The goals of this panel, which is composed of several distinguished panelists with research in this area, are: (1) Identify specific conflict, defense, and security (CDS) issues that system dynamics academics should be researching and publishing. In particular, are there specific aspects of CDS that need special attention, which have been neglected in the past? (2) Encourage academic research in the CDS area, particularly by discussing the upcoming System Dynamics Review special issue on “Modeling and Simulation of Terrorism and Insurgency Movements.” (3) Highlight those areas of system dynamics “wisdom” that is not part of the conventional wisdom with respect to CDS issues?