Reevaluating the United States Approach to Conflict and Military Intervention

<p>The realist paradigm is the USG's dominate perspective for conflict analysis. Historically this perspective has served the United States well leading to its ascension from colonial possession to global hegemon in less than two centuries. There is mounting evidence however that this perspective and its associated approaches are inadequate for the conflicts it is currently and will continue to engage in the 21st Century. Recent trends suggest that the U.S.' future conflicts will be more emotional and intractable than the ones it traditionally prepared. The realist paradigm with its explicit focus on rational decision-making and substantive issues fails to provide insight into and lacks the concepts methods and tools to effectively address intractable conflict's multiple dimensions. The systems paradigm specifically the dynamical systems approach provides valuable insights into conflict formation maintenance and resolution that practitioners can use to design and monitor more effective resolution strategies. More importantly it provides an overarching framework that incorporates the relative strengths of multiple conflict paradigms into a cohesive holistic approach. This thesis argues that adopting a more holistic approach to conflict resolution would increase the effectiveness of USG's international intervention efforts.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p><br>