Wicked Problems, Creative Thinking, and the Transcendentalist

Nature Redux

Wicked Problems, Creative Thinking, and the Transcendentalist

by Major Michael Few, Small Wars Journal

Wicked Problems, Creative Thinking, and the Transcendentalist (Full PDF Article)

Eighteen months ago, I embarked on a journey to pursue an academic solution for Iraq. After redeploying from the Surge, I wanted to merge the gap between counter-insurgency and stabilization and reconstruction. I wanted to figure out how WE could fix Iraq’s problems. I wanted to find a way to win. In truth, it was never simply about Iraq. I was trying to reconcile the world I knew as a boy with the world that I know as a man.

Initially, I began my research investigating the different perspectives of various compilations of social sciences. I examined Zaganiyah from the objective lens of the anthropologist, the economist, the historian, and the sociologist. Each lens provided a unique insight but no solution. At the end of every path, I felt like I was running into a brick wall. I searched past social sciences and attempted to merge economics with psychology. In this realm, I was able to devise a new way of thinking that I could understand.

Wicked Problems, Creative Thinking, and the Transcendentalist (Full PDF Article)