Global Challenges Governance And Complexity

There is an increased interest in integrating insights from the complexity sciences to studies of governance and policy. While the issue has been debated, and the term of ‘complexity’ has multiple and sometimes contested interpretations, it is also clear the field has spurred a number of interesting theoretical and empirical efforts. The book includes key thinkers in the field, elaborates on different analytical approaches in studying governance, institutions and policy in the face of complexity, and showcases empirical applications and insights.

Governing Complexity in the 21st Century surveys the ways in which social systems are becoming more complex. It shows how this complexity impacts every aspect of life for individuals, governments and societies in most social systems at individual, regional, national and global scales and explores how embracing ‘complexity thinking’ can greatly improve the art of governance in all policy areas. The book clearly explains the ideas and methods of complexity science—widely accepted in both the natural and social sciences—then demonstrates how ‘complexity thinking’ can be applied to improve our understanding of governance and policy actions. Providing a deep analysis of many governance challenges, including economic development and technological innovation, environment management, climate change and development in the Middle East, the book also compares national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Clear and jargon-free, this book is accessible to undergraduates and scholars alike. It is essential reading for policymakers everywhere, showcasing methods for governing effectively and efficiently in our increasingly complex world. It brings together the broad range of social and environmental science fields and will be useful for those studying or working in policy, politics and international relations, environmental issues, business management, philosophy, history and sociology.

Peter Ho, former Head of the Singapore Civil Service, was the Institute of Policy Studies' 2016/17 S R Nathan Fellow for the Study of Singapore. This book collects the four IPS-Nathan Lectures that he delivered between April and May 2017, and gathers highlights of his dialogues with the audience. Ho surveys the increasingly complex world, and suggests what governments can do to prepare for the future — even as no one can predict it. He uses metaphors such as the "black elephant" and concepts like the "dialectic of governance" to explain how a systematic approach to thinking about the future can help countries in general — and Singapore in particular — build resilience and develop a comparative advantage in the face of uncertainty and rapid change. The IPS-Nathan Lectures series was launched in 2014 as part of the S R Nathan Fellowship for the Study of Singapore. Its primary goal is to promote public understanding and discourse of issues of critical national interest. Contents: ForewordLecture I — Hunting Black Swans & Taming Black Elephants: Governance in a Complex World ] Q&ALecture II — Governing in the Anthropocene: Risk & Resilience, Imagination & Innovation + Q&ALecture III — The Paradox of Singapore and the Dialectic of Governance + Q&ALecture IV — The Future: Governance, Unintended Consequences, and the Redemption of Hope + Q&A Readership: General public, professionals, students, researchers, diplomats, and foreign visitors interested in knowing more about Singapore and what lies ahead for the city-state. Keywords: Complexity;Governance;Government;Singapore;Singapore Civil Service;Technology;Risk;Resilience;Dialectic;Future;Futures Thinking;Innovation;Imagination;Scenario Planning;Anthropocene;Paradox;HopeReview: Key Features: Mr Peter Ho's ideas on governance and complexity are broad ranging and deep. However, it was mostly civil servants who had been able to hear him share his views prior to this lecture seriesAccessible academia The content is targeted at youth and the general public, and thus unlocks the knowledge of academia to be accessed by the public

Resilience has become a central concept in government policy understandings over the last decade. In our complex, global and interconnected world, resilience appears to be the policy ‘buzzword’ of choice, alleged to be the solution to a wide and ever-growing range of policy issues. This book analyses the key aspects of resilience-thinking and highlights how resilience impacts upon traditional conceptions of governance. This concise and accessible book investigates how resilience-thinking adds new insights into how politics (both domestically and internationally) is understood to work and how problems are perceived and addressed; from educational training in schools to global ethics and from responses to shock events and natural disasters to long-term international policies to promote peace and development. This book also raises searching questions about how resilience-thinking influences the types of knowledge and understanding we value and challenges traditional conceptions of social and political processes. It sets forward a new and clear conceptualisation of resilience, of use to students, academics and policy-makers, emphasising the links between the rise of resilience and awareness of the complex nature of problems and policy-making.

This book is an introduction to complex systems thinking at the global governance level. It offers concepts, tools, and ways of thinking about how systems change that can be applied to the most wicked problems facing the world today. More than an abstract argument for complexity theory, the book offers a targeted critique of today’s highest-profile proposals for improving the governance of our environment, security, finance, health, and digital space. It suggests that we should spend less effort and resources on upgrading existing institutions, and more on understanding how they (and we) relate to each other. The volume will be essential reading for public policymakers, NGOs and think tanks, foreign policy experts, government officials, and global decision-makers.

Identifies the major weaknesses in the current United Nations system and proposes fundamental reforms to address each. This title is also available as Open Access.

An unprecedented political, economic, social, and legal storm was unleashed by the United Kingdom's June 2016 referendum to leave the European Union and the government's response to the vote. After decades of strengthening European integration and independence, Brexit necessitates a deep understanding of its international law implications on both sides of the English Channel in order to chart the stormy seas of negotiating and advancing beyond separation. In Complexity's Embrace, international law practitioners and academics from the United Kingdom, Europe, Canada and the United States look beyond the rhetoric of "Brexit Means Brexit" and "no agreement is better than a bad agreement" to explain the challenges that need to be addressed in the diverse fields of trade, financial services, insolvency, intellectual property, environment, and human rights. The authors in this volume articulate, with unvarnished clarity, the international law implications of Brexit, providing policy makers, commentators, the legal community, and civil society with critical information they need to participate in negotiating their future within or outside Europe. Complexity's Embrace explores the many unprecedented questions about the UK's future trading arrangements. Contributors include Thomas Cottier, Armand de Mestral, Oonagh E. Fitzgerald, David A. Gantz, Markus Gehring, Valerie Hughes, Matthias Lehmann, Eva Lein, Dorothy Livingston, Richard Macrory, Luke McDonagh, Marc Mimler, Howard P. Morris, Gabriel Moss, Helen Mountfield, Federico M. Mucciarelli, Joe Newbigin, Colm O’Cinneide, Damilola S. Olawuyi, Christoph G. Paulus, Maziar Peihani, Freedom-Kai Phillips, Stephen Tromans, Diana Wallis, and Dirk Zetzsche.

Aligning global governance to the challenges of sustainability is one of the most urgent international issues to be addressed. This book is a timely and up-to-date compilation of the main pieces of the global environmental governance puzzle. Essential Concepts of Global Environmental Governance synthesizes writing from an internationally diverse range of well-known experts. Each entry defines a central concept in global environmental governance, presents its historical evolution and related debates, and includes key bibliographical references. This new edition takes stock of several recent developments in global environmental politics including the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the UN Global Pact for the Environment attempt in 2017, and the 2018 Oceans Plastics Charter. More precisely, this book: offers cutting-edge analysis of the state of global environmental governance; presents an up-to-date debate on sustainable development at the global level; gives an in-depth exploration of current architecture of global environmental governance; examines the interaction between environmental politics and other policy fields such as trade, development, and security; provides a critical review of the recent global environmental governance literature. Innovative thinking and high-profile expertise come together to create a volume that is accessible to students, scholars, and practitioners alike.