One consequence is that information on strategies employed by international bodies tends to be even more dispersed than that on the problems to which such strategies are designed to respond. Whilst the organizations described in the Yearbook of International Organizations may be able to identify precisely the set of problems to which they are responding, it is usually much clear less what strategy they are employing in the process. Problems tend to be more explicitly recognized than strategies. Organizations quite often have strategies which are not distinguishable within the organization from programme orientations, working style and the general objectives for which the body was originally established. Strategies, like problems, may not be distinguished as such.
Many strategies are therefore implicit rather than explicit.
The conventional approach of an organization or group to any problem situation is to elaborate a strategy, whether explicit or implicit. However, as demonstrated in Volume 1, the number, variety and interrelationships of the problems are such that it is legitimate to question whether any conventional strategy could be even partly adequate. A fundamental difficulty in strategy development is the predilection for simplistic hierarchical representation of the interrelationships between concepts, between organizations, and between problems. This is so despite constant exposure to evidence that these hierarchies do not contain the complexity with which society has to deal. It can be argued that in this period of social crisis there is some advantage in clarifying the range of strategies currently being pursued in response to the global problematique.