Who am I?
An analyst tracking thinking on grand strategy, complexity, military doctrine and whatever else comes up.

What is "Opposed Systems Design?"
It is a term coined by the late Albert Wohlstetter to describe his field of study. He explained himself thusly:
"I.. use the phrase "opposed-systems design" to name a kind of study that attempts to discern and answer questions affecting policy -- specifically affecting a choice of ends and of means to accomplish ends that stand a good chance of being opposed by other governments.

...'opposed-systems design' replaces several synonyms -- some of my own devising -- which have not quite succeeded in fending off casual misunderstanding. One workable synonym might appear to be 'strategic studies;' but the phrase is at best ambiguous and at worst a militantly indiscriminate epithet used by antagonists of any study of potential military conflict. The most familiar serious candidate is E. L. Paxon's 'systems analysis' and in fact, this has the largest currency; there is now, for example, an able Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Analysis. But the word 'system' is everybody's possession. It is used rather differently by engineers in 'systems engineering,' by theorists of international relations, and in particular by Mr. Kaplan in his 'systems theory,' and, rather mysteriously, by the general semanticists in their 'general systems theory.' As a short name for a complex of interdependent elements, the word 'system' seems nearly indispensable, but not specific enough. Yet it is used without qualification to designate very different kinds of complexes of interdependent elements. I have tried in the past to discriminate the sort of study Paxon had in mind from many of these others by talking of 'conflict-systems design,' but that has the difficulty of suggesting that the goal of study is to generate conflict. 'Conflict-worthy systems,' modeled on 'sea-worthy' is more accurate, but even more awkward. Perhaps 'opposed-systems design' is closing in on it. Potential opposition at any rate is an essential."
-Theory and Opposed-Systems Design by Albert Wohlstetter