Modeling paradox: Straddling a fine line between research and conjecture

In the book ldquoThe Invention of Peace,rdquo Michael Howard asserts his view of the history of European conflict. Complementing this work, Michael Lind in ldquoThe American Way of Strategyrdquo presents his thesis of the United Statespsila motivation for instigating and participating in international conflicts. When considering a system such as international order, the systems thinker would be interested in a methodology to study any hidden paradoxes. These paradoxes may offer insight into new ways to approach the underlying system. This paper exploits three tools of systems thinking to identify, elaborate, and validate the existence of a paradox within a certain system. These tools are Peter Sengepsilas system diagrams, John Boardmanpsilas systemic diagrams, and agent-based models, respectively. Validating the findings of the first two tools with an executable agent-based model provides additional credibility to the systems thinking. As a proof of concept, the views of Howard and Lind are combined into one coherent perspective, which reveals the war and peace paradox.