It is especially appropriate to address in this publication questions concerning the complex relationship between religious traditions and intellectual life. Too often such traditions are still viewed as providing fixed and final answers to questions whose force and meaning do not depend on these traditions. This overvalues traditions in one respect and undervalues them in another. As a set of ...

By far the greatest challenge related to undermining of internal sovereignty in the settled areas of NWFP and the rapidly fading writ of the government in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Although a military operation appears to have quelled the insurgency in some parts for now, these areas still need to be brought fully under state control. In addition, the largest ever displace...

“The term ‘holistic’ refers to my conviction that what we are concerned with here is the fundamental interconnectedness of all things”. . . . “I see the solution to each problem as being detectable in the pattern and web of the whole. The connections between causes and effects are often much more subtle and complex than we with our rough and ready understanding of the physical world might natur...

Systems engineering is a discipline with methods and techniques to address complex problems. We want to study how Systems Engineering methods can help to address today’s grand challenges, such as the energy problem. The first step is problem definition which aims at articulating the problem in its context as clearly as possible. Humanity will have to cope with the energy problem, one of the mos...

This paper summarizes the findings and recommendations of a recent panel on Future Directions in Control, Dynamics, and Systems, sponsored by the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research. A set of grand challenges that illustrate some of the recommendations and opportunities are provided. Finally, the paper describes two new courses being developed at Caltech that are aligned with the recomme...

One of the grand challenges for society is global security in food and nutrition. The ‘‘perfect storm’’ metaphor has been used by Sir John Beddington to describe the scenario that wemight be heading for, with simultaneous shortages for food, water, and energy within the foreseeable future. This Select highlights the need for a truly multipronged approach across scientific disciplines and countr...