Dear Mr./Ms. M. Jones,
SD may be very useful in modeling foreign affairs, given the complex and
uncertain nature of issues and relations, hence the need to expand our
mental models by repeated/different simulations.
Prof. Khalid Saeed has done a huge amount of work in this area. To give you
a flavor of some recent work, the 1998 special issue of System Dynamics
Review on Sustainable Development has articles such as "Sustainable trade
relations in a global economy", "Simulating conflict within and between
nations", and so forth.
I personally worked in my Ph. D. on North-South conflict, looking at the
SPECIFIC problem of high-speed change in newly industrializing nations (the
"South" block, China, India, Brazil, for instance) and its potential
impacts on the North, the South, and hence much of globe. The same/similar
model may be used for other sets of countries, e.g., US-EC, US-China, North
America-EC-Pacific Rim, North America-South America-EC-Pacific Rim, etc. Of
course, some of the specific parameters and relations in the model will
change (as I had also done to extend the Limits to Growth World3 model to
the North and South blocks of countries). You may find references I used
through my URL below; also the dissertation copy (Environment and
Development - A Study of North-South Conflict, 1996) is obtainable from UMI
Dissertation Services, 300 N Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106, USA - phones
800 521 0600 in USA or 313 761 4700 from outside USA. Please contact me if
you would like more info/copies of articles/model listing.
Best regards,
Jaideep
From: j-d <
j-d@technologist.com>
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Jaideep Mukherjee, Ph. D.
Phone: 713 523 2713; Fax: 713 523 0379
Virtual Office
http://www.netopia.geocities.com/shunya/
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