[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# Looking Beyond Traditional Tools: Systems Thinking for Adaptive Decision-Making and Complex Problem Solving in the Nepali Army

## Details

**Authors** Subba, Dil Bikram

**Year** 2026

**Publisher** The Shivapuri Journal

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Military

**Secondary disciplines** Public Policy

**Reading level** technical

**Kind of engagement** scholarly

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.3126/shivapuri.v27i1.90940) 
10.3126/shivapuri.v27i1.90940

## In authors' words

### Abstract

This paper underscores the significance of systems thinking for adaptive military decision-making and problem-solving in complex operational environments. By using an analytical and descriptive approach, this paper reiterates the fact that traditional approaches often fall short to address the interconnected nature of contemporary complex security challenges. Therefore, systems thinking presents holistic tools and frameworks to enhance situational understanding, anticipate second- and third-order effects, and foster organizational agility. It also discusses key principles and practical tools, identifies cognitive biases and institutional barriers, and recommends useful measures to deal with it in the Nepali Army's context. Furthermore, it concludes that systems thinking emerges as an institutional necessity for enhancing skills for decision-making and problem-solving given the Nepali Army's formal adoption of IOPP and TPP.

### What they set out to do (purpose)

Argues that traditional military decision tools cannot handle the interconnected nature of contemporary security challenges, and sets out systems thinking as the alternative for the Nepali Army, mapped onto its formally adopted Institutional and Tactical Planning Processes.

### What they found (results)

Concludes that systems thinking is "an institutional necessity" for military decision-making and problem-solving, and proposes an enhanced VMOCL framework – Vision, Mission, Objectives, Capacity, Learning – extending the Cabreras' VMCL by inserting an Objectives layer as a bridge between intent and implementation. Also catalogs the cognitive biases and institutional barriers that obstruct systems thinking in that context.

## Commentary

### In short

This is doctrinal adoption by a serving officer, not a test. What lifts it above a citation is that DSRP gets its own framework section and figure with all four Patterns defined, is mapped onto the army's actual planning processes, and that the author then modifies a Cabrera model rather than only reproducing it. An outside institution extending VMCL to fit its own planning chain is a different kind of engagement evidence than a literature citation, and the modification itself is worth watching: whether the Objectives layer is a genuine gap or a restatement of what Mission already carries is a question the site could take up.

### In more detail

Author is Brigadier General Dil Bikram Subba, Nepali Army; the journal is published by the Nepali Army Command and Staff College. Keywords: bias, cognitive tools, complex adaptive system, decision making framework, heuristics and fallacies, problem solving, systems thinking. Derek's verification from the article PDF: DSRP is defined across all four Patterns with its own Figure 3, Cabrera and Cabrera 2015, 2018 and 2022 are cited, and Figure 11 presents the original VMOCL extension. IOPP and TPP are the army's Institutional and Tactical Planning Processes.

### Response

A serving officer maps systems thinking onto the Nepali Army's formally adopted planning processes, gives DSRP its own framework section with all four patterns defined, and then extends VMCL into VMOCL by inserting an Objectives layer. Doctrinal adoption, and a modification of the framework rather than a straight application.

**Patterns it shows** D, S, R, P

**Added** 2026-09-10

**How to cite this** Subba, Dil Bikram (2026). Looking Beyond Traditional Tools: Systems Thinking for Adaptive Decision-Making and Complex Problem Solving in the Nepali Army. The Shivapuri Journal.