Charles ArmorThe

Social Security Death Index The Social Security Death Index (SSDI) was a database of death records created from the Social Security Administration, United States Social Security Administration's Death Master File until 2014. Since 2014, public access to the updated Death Mas ...

spells his middle name Armour McClelland (April 25, 1917 – March 31, 2006) was an American

political scientist Political science is the science, scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of politics, political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated c ...

systems analyst A systems analyst, also known as business technology analyst, is an information technology (IT) professional who specializes in analyzing, designing and implementing information systems. Systems analysts assess the suitability of information syst ...

and Professor

International Relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such as ...

at the

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

, who was among the first to introduce

General Systems Theory Systems theory is the interdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or human-made. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, defined by its structu ...

in the field of

Biography

Born and raised in

Oakley, Idaho Oakley is a city in Cassia County, Idaho, United States. The population was 763 at the 2010 census, up from 668 in 2000.

, McClelland received his BA from

San Jose State College San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sy ...

, and his MA and PhD in

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

from the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

. In 1940s McClelland joined the faculty of the

San Francisco State College San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

, where he became professor of history and international relations at the department of International Relations, and chairman of the division of social science. He was also visiting professor at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, department of Political Science, and joined the faculty as Professor, department of International Relations at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

. One of his students at San Francisco State College was James N. Rosenau. He was president of

Society for General Systems Research The International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS) is a worldwide organization for systems sciences. The overall purpose of the ISSS is: :"to promote the development of conceptual frameworks based on general system theory, as well as their ...

from 1959 to 1961. In 1967 he received an USC Associates Awards for Letters, Arts and Sciences. In the 1970s McClelland received research grants from the

Advanced Research Projects Agency The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adv ...

, a research arm of the Pentagon. In 1978-79 he was a Scholar in Residence at the Annenberg School of Communications at the

Work

With

Walter F. Buckley Walter Frederick Buckley (April 17, 1921 – January 27, 2006) was an American sociologist, and professor of sociology at the University of New Hampshire. Buckley was among the first to apply concepts from general systems theory based on the work ...

, Morton A. Kaplan, Karl W. Deutsch,

Robert A. Dahl Robert Alan Dahl (; December 17, 1915 – February 5, 2014) was an American political theorist and Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University. He established the pluralist theory of democracy—in which political outcomes are ...

and

David Easton David Easton (June 24, 1917 – July 19, 2014) was a Canadian-born American political scientist. From 1947 to 1997, he served as a professor of political science at the University of Chicago. At the forefront of both the behavioralist and post- ...

McClelland was among the first to introduce

in the social sciences. In his 1966 book "''Theory and the International System''" McClelland introduced the idea to apply general systems ideas in the study of international relations from different perspectives, which led to the definition of different approaches. In 1969 McClelland postulated the "''wisdom approach''", an approach that "invites scholars to prudently examine history and appreciate the precarious nature of human conduct, rather than being overwhelmed by masses of data, which more often than not lead to blind spots of partisanship".Farhang Rajāyī (2000) ''Globalization on Trial: The Human Condition and the Information Civilization''. p.40

Publications

* 1955, ''Applications of General Systems Theory in International Relations'' * 1960, ''The United Nations: the Continuing Debate''. Chandler publishing. 1960 * 1960, ''Nuclear weapons, missiles, and future war: problem for the sixties''. * 1962, ''College teaching of international relations; problems of organization and collaboration. A report on applied and experimental studies of undergraduate college education in international relations.'' * 1967, ''Theory of the International System''. New York : The Macmillan Company. * 1970, ''An Interaction Survey of the Middle East'', with Anne Ancoli. * 1972, ''International Events Interaction Analysis: Some Research Considerations''. With, Edward E. Azar and Richard A. Brody (eds.) Beverly Hills: Sage Publications. ;Articles * 1958, "Systems and History in International Relations". In: ''General Systems Yearbook'' 3 (1958), p. 237. * 1959, "A Classification of International Relations Theory" in: ''American Behavioral Scientist'', Vol. 2, No. 4, 32-34 (1959) * 1960, "The function of theory in international relations" in: ''Journal of Conflict Resolution'' 4 (1960), pp. 303–336. * 1961, "The Acute International Crisis," in: ''World Politics'', Vol. 14 (October 1961), p. 199. * 1962, "General Systems and the Social Sciences," in: ''A Review of General Semantics'', 18 (1962), 456. * 1972, "The Beginning, Duration, and Abatement of International Crises: Comparisons in Two Conflict Arenas", in C. F. Hermann (ed.), ''International Crises: Insights from Behavioral Research'' (New York: Free Press, 1972). ;Publications about McClelland: * Charles P. Schleicher (1967), "Reviewed work(s): Theory of the International System by Charles A. McClelland", in: ''The Western Political Quarterly'', Vol. 20, No. 1 (Mar., 1967), pp. 232–233

References

External links

Charles McClelland
at the ISSS website. {{DEFAULTSORT:McClelland, Charles A. 1917 births 2006 deaths American political writers American male non-fiction writers San Jose State University alumni San Francisco State University faculty American systems scientists University of Michigan faculty People from Oakley, Idaho 20th-century American male writers Presidents of the International Society for the Systems Sciences