“It is a system, stupid!”

How systems thinking could have prevented the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Photo by Vadim Ghirda / AP

Descartes and Newton believed that the parts explain the whole. Imagine eating at a three-star Michelin restaurant and having just tasted the most wonderful dish. You know the restaurant owner, and you beg her to introduce you to the chef. And the chef tells you the exact composition of her masterpiece: to the gram, the precise amount of each…