# Engineering for Peace and Diplomacy
## 3 A Systems Approach to Peace
The main difficulty with reverse analysis, however, is the lack of specific relevant methodologies, much less a method that would guarantee a unique, definite, and successful answer. Determining  
Figure 2: Peace emerges in a community landscape consisting of multiple dependent systems and their nested subsystems and is subject to constraints and barriers. A simpler version of this graph was originally proposed by [PERSON] [24]. system structure from system behavior is not easy since multiple structures could explain a given form of behavior. Having said that, determining system structure from system behavior does not have to be a random process based only on intuition and experience. Over the past 50 years, multiple systems-based tools have been proposed in the literature to explore complex systems and comprehend their dynamics. As noted by [PERSON] and [PERSON] (2016), these tools can be divided into soft and hard ones. A soft systems approach to a problem focuses on the'systemic' process of inquiry and 'problem situations', but not on the structure of the problems per se. Examples of such tools include mind maps, network mapping, problem and solution trees, and causal analysis, among others. A hard systems approach includes the development of systems models (qualitative and quantitative) to address the systemic and structural aspects of the problem being analyzed. Existing hard system tools include system dynamics, cross-impact analysis, agent-based modeling, and network analysis (including gender-based analysis), to name a few. Whether soft or hard system tools are used to address the dynamic of community peace and development in the landscape shown in Figure 2, a methodology is necessary to help decision-makers and practitioners forge scenarios for interventions to address peace and development-related community issues. A possible methodology using system dynamics (SD) tools is suggested in Figure 3 and consists of 11 stages:  
1. Select, define, and map the context, scale, boundaries, and overall landscape in which community peace and development unfold, including key players and decision-makers. Is it a peacebuilding, peacemaking, or peacekeeping situation? 2. Using participatory appraisal methods, follow an inductive process to acquire data and information about the current structure of the community landscape, including its behavior patterns, its capacity and vulnerability, and its current level of positive and negative peace. 3. Define, rank/prioritize, and formulate mental models about the systemic issues at play in the different systems and subsystems of the landscape. Issues are defined here as _gaps_ between the current and desired/aspired states of community peace and development. For each issue diagnosed, the following questions need to be asked: What is the issue? Why is there an issue? Who is involved and facing the issue? Who could contribute to its solutions? Where is the issue unfolding and over what timescale? How is the issue expressing itself, and how has it expressed itself in the past? Does the issue follow a recurring pattern? How is it likely to manifest in the future if not properly handled? How is the issue connected to other issues? What internal and external factors in the landscape contribute to and affect the issue? 4. Propose preliminary conceptual (or structural) models of peace and development dynamics and formulate possible hypotheses to explain how the issues outlined above unfold (i.e., possible explanations that relate structure to behavior). 5. Employ multiple system-based tools (e.g., mind maps, causal analysis, cross-impact analysis, and network analysis) to refine the various peace and development dynamics at play in the landscape in its current state. 6. Develop qualitative and quantitative system dynamics simulation models that reproduce in a satisfactory manner the existing mental models and their dynamic hypotheses. Further discussion about the steps of system dynamics modeling can be found in _Modeling the Environment_ by [PERSON] (2016). 7.