We use system approaches, specifically systems dynamics, to understand and model complex sustainable development programs including corruption, migration, the Sustainable Development Goals, the Water-Energy-Land-Food Nexus, conflict and peacemaking, hydropolitics, and water security, to name a few. We have developed an innovative method of research and consulting based on qualitative data analysis and textual analysis to construct system dynamics models based purely on science and local contextual understanding. We bridge academia with the professional worlds and the social sciences with the technical sciences and engineering.