The Evolution of Strategic Foresight : Navigating Public Policy Making

Strategic foresight is traditionally associated with the military and politics. Tuomo Kuosa looks at its development into a method of generating analyses of alternative futures and strategies, based on available intelligence and foreknowledge. This practice can be applied to companies, business sectors, national and trans-national agencies of all descriptions, and to all aspects of public policy making. In The Evolution of Strategic Foresight the author uses examples from 30 countries, involving key experts in the field, to illustrate the theory underpinning the employment of strategic foresight. Its practice is explained in terms of structure, process, and knowledge domains. Methodologies and systems are examined, along with how strategic foresight can be used to produce better knowledge and be more effectively linked to policy making. Kuosa’s findings are invaluable to scholars, students, long-range, public policy and urban planners, analysts, risk assessment experts, and consultants, managers and decision makers.

Embracing the theory and practice of strategic foresight and illuminating how different schools of thought regard its role in policy making, Tuomo Kuosa describes how something not traditionally considered an independent discipline, is steadily becoming one. In The Evolution of Strategic Foresight he explains how the practice of strategic foresight has long been closely associated with the military and politics. Linking strategic thinking more broadly to futurology, however, it is quite new. Since strategic foresight refers to the practice of generating analyses of alternative futures and strategies, based on available intelligence and foreknowledge, the practice can and should be applied to companies, business sectors, national and trans-national agencies of all descriptions, and to all aspects of public policy making. The author explains its practice in terms of structure, process, and knowledge domains, and examines its methodologies and systems, along with how strategic foresight can be used to produce better knowledge and be more effectively linked to policy making. Using examples from 30 different countries and with access to interviews and workshops involving key experts, The Evolution of Strategic Foresight will be valuable to scholars, educators, students engaged in strategy and future studies, long-range, public policy and urban planners, analysts; risk assessment experts, and consultants, managers and decision makers in many organisations, public and private.