Operations research trajectories: The Anglo-American experience from the 1940s to the 1990s

This paper is derived from the author's sponsored history of Operations Research in Britain from its formal inception in the later 1930s. It is inspired by the knowledge that any history of OR in Britain that ignores the interrelationship with OR in the United States would be grossly incomplete. This relates not only to the period of military collaboration in World War II but also to the profound influence on British operations researchers of American-derived techniques and methods. The Anglo-American perspective serves also to highlight major contrasts, as well as striking similarities in the development of OR in both countries. The paper advocates the need for ongoing research into the history of OR as an essential complement to the advancing frontier of knowledge, both in theory and in practice. Virtually all disciplines worthy of university-level study have their chroniclers, and this should apply with no less force to OR in the light of its impressive trajectory of development and early acknowledgment of its utilitarian value in a wide variety of settings in the public and private sectors.