Forward Engagement: The Study of Long-range Developments as Factors in Contemporary National Policy
IAFF 290.23
Professor Leon Fuerth

The objective of this course is to accustom graduate and qualified honors students to thinking in a disciplined fashion about potentially major societal events now gestating in the longer-range future, and simultaneously, to consider initiatives that might be taken in contemporary public policy to meet these contingencies. In the real world, issues are far more inter-connected than our specializations suggest, and to filter out these connections imperils our ability to appreciate what is shaping our lives. Therefore, Forward Engagement does not relate only to security issues: it tries to comprehend major developments in the broad categories of defense, economics, science and technology, and governance – and it also strives to understand how these developments interact. This approach will complement the training of students who are preparing for careers in government or who are seriously interested in public policy though enrolled in other specializations.

The course serves as an adaptive research and analytical organization that learns from and modifies the work of its predecessors

GRADUATE COURSE PUBLICATIONS:

“Creation of a National Commission for Strategic Planning,” Futures Research Quarterly, World Futures Society, Winter 2004