Unit 2 – System Development

Systemic Crisis

• Define the system – the Pattern of interactions

A Crisis is an episode of transitionA B

Systemic Change is infrequent, alterations more so

Episodes of System Transformation

• 476 – Fall of Rome

Episodes of System Transformation

• 476 – Fall of Rome

• 800 – Charlemagne Crowned “Emperor of the Romans”– Onset of middle ages and beginning of state

consolidation– Feudalism as a state model– Ideology of Universal Christian Empire

Episodes of System Transformation

• 476 – Fall of Rome

• 800 – Charlemagne

• 1350 – Rise of Italian City states– Renaissance Period– Intense competition between states for power

Episodes of System Transformation

• 476 – Fall of Rome

• 800 – Charlemagne

• 1350 – Rise of Italian City states

• 1517 – 1550 – Reformation begins– End of Universal Christian Empire ideology– Wars of Spanish Succession– Rise of Dutch Power

Episodes of System Transformation

• 476 – Fall of Rome

• 800 – Charlemagne

• 1350 – Rise of Italian City states

• 1517 – 1550 – Reformation

• 1618 – 1648 – Thirty Years war ends Spanish bid for Dominance– Treaty of Westphalia– Sovereignty established as the system norm

Episodes of System Transformation

• 476 – Fall of Rome• 800 – Charlemagne• 1350 – Rise of Italian City states• 1517 – 1550 – Reformation• 1618 – 1648 – Thirty Years war • 1815 – defeat of Napoleon ends French bid for

dominance– England established as dominant power– Concert of Europe maintains multipolarity

Episodes of System Transformation

• 1914-1918 – WW1 and Russian Revolution destroys Concert of Europe– Decline of multi-polar system– Great depression – Economic and political competition leads to

WW2

Episodes of System Transformation

• 1914-1918 – WW1

• 1947 – WW2, Cold War– Bipolar system of antagonism– International Institutions

• UN• World Bank• IMF

Episodes of System Transformation

• 1914-1918 – WW1

• 1947 – WW2, Cold War

• 1989 – 1991 – End of Cold War– Unilateral US dominance– Local conflicts unleashed, new instability

Episodes of System Transformation

• 1914-1918 – WW1

• 1947 – WW2, Cold War

• 1989 – 1991 – End of Cold War

• 2001? - War on Terror– Is it a systemic change, or more of the same?