Introducing System Shift: Scientists Assert Economic Disruption and Geopolitical Conflicts Do Not Emerge Overnight

A national scientist, Professor Raymond R. Tjandrawinata, has introduced a new framework for reading global change: System Shift. It has emerged amid rising global uncertainty, geopolitical fragmentation, accelerated artificial intelligence, institutional crises, and economic pressures appearing nearly simultaneously around the world. Through the book System Shift: Reading the World as Structure in Motion, Professor Raymond invites readers to see that major change almost never happens suddenly. What changes first are the structures that support the world itself. ‘Major changes almost never appear suddenly. Crises are usually only the surface of structural pressures that have long been moving within the system,’ wrote Professor Raymond in the foreword of his book, quoted Thursday 21 May 2026. Based on these observations, System Shift is built on the idea that people are often slow to understand change because they focus too much on events, while the structures that give rise to the events themselves are rarely read in full. Geopolitical conflict, economic disruption, institutional instability, and seemingly abrupt social changes are, in fact, the result of pressures that accumulate slowly within the system. The book develops through three main layers of discussion. First, it shows that various global events are essentially expressions of deeper structural processes. Second, it unpacks how the economic, political, technological, environmental systems and social institutions are interconnected and create fragilities that are often not visible during periods of stability. Third, it translates this framework into thirteen operational instruments to help readers recognise the direction of systemic shifts, read pressure points, and understand changes before their impacts fully surface. For Professor Raymond, the thinking behind System Shift is not something that arises separately from the world of science. System-based approaches have long been part of biomedical research processes, especially in understanding biological complexity, designing long-term innovations, and examining relationships among components that are not always visible directly. That experience has subsequently evolved into a broader reflection on how systems operate, change, and experience pressure on a global scale.