Society has an insatiable appetite for simplicity and for solutions.  More often than not this creates problems rather than solves them because policymakers become caught up in the narrative of miracle cures for complex problems.

Tough policy issues like the drugs trade, climate change and gang crime cannot be solved by a silver bullet, and yet the rhetoric of contemporary policymakers and politicians suggests they can.  If we accept the world is complex, uncertain and unpredictable then we have to adapt our current approach to policy making.

Connecting the Dots offers and approach premised on learning and adaptation, which demands that politicians and policymakers be prepared to embrace uncertainty and complexity.  This pamphlet aims to lay the foundations for a new deliberative framework; one that is suited to dealing withcomplex issues that are unbounded in time, scope and resources.  It examines some of today's most intractable policy issues - illicit drugs in Mexico, London gang crime and climate change - and makes the links that will help policymakers approach such problems in a way that will achieve realistic and lasting change.