The global system and the implications of interactions

The author points out that increased interaction between nations is characterized as inherently beneficial; little or no attention has been paid to the costs of interaction. The exponential growth of interaction between nations has vastly exceeded man's capacity to govern the international system. Using a cybernatic model, Scott describes the exponential growth in interaction as the positive feedback loop in the global system which generates an increasing rate of new problems; the negative feedback loop is the source of solutions to these problems. Complexity has given rise to unpredictability in an era in which inability to foresee the consequences of actions has serious, perhaps lethal, implications. By virtue of increased interaction, a crisis in one part of the globe has ramifications throughout the system. We must concentrate our efforts on developing adequate means of management and control of the international system or face ultimate systemic breakdown.