World Future Society--Global Strategies Forum

Global Strategies Forum

The World Future Society invites its members and other interested persons to submit strategies for addressing the complex issues facing the world today and in the near-term future. Essays deemed of general interest will be posted here, and readers are invited to peruse them and offer their comments, questions, critiques, or encouragement.

Copyright: These papers are protected by the authors' copyright and may not be reproduced or distributed without the authors' permission.

To submit proposals: Please e-mail the full text, along with an abstract of no more than 50 words, to the editors.

        Ability to Establish, in Our Day, a Rational, Just, and Effective Political System
         by Lev Osterman
           A concept of a political system free of the shortcomings of traditional democracy is proposed. Congress is eliminated. Legislative functions are carried out by the “Areopag” – a board of forty most esteemed citizens elected through cooptation. Power of the people is expressed as each of these citizens periodically reports to the people, and as earned trust backed by an overwhelming majority in the national election. Distrust means immediate expulsion from the Areopag, hence the “democracy of trust”. A gradual, unforced transition to the proposed political system is detailed.

Futurist Interview with Former CIA Director James Woolsey.
by Patrick Tucker
Reliance on oil is a major environmental concern among industrialized nations, particularly the United States, which uses and imports more oil than any other country. Oil dependency is emerging as a major national security issue as well. As part of our July-August issue, THE FUTURIST presents this interview with Former CIA Director James Woolsey on ending the oil era.

Solve Global Problems in this Generation
by Anil Hira
This article argues that a golden age is well within our grasp, and is not a pipe dream. It is a recognition that what is good for us in many ways now is tied in more and more directly with the welfare of others.

Open Letter to Bill and Melinda Gates
by Gioietta Kuo, PhD
Suppose you are able to reduce the infant mortality rate drastically by the application of vaccines, medication and environmental measures, you would bring up to adulthood many who might have otherwise perished.

NEUTRAX
by Bálint Szent-Miklósy
Looking at the world as seen from space, I noticed that trains run on the tracks in the northern hemisphere, but if they continue on to the southern hemisphere the tracks will, in fact, be above the train with gravity pushing the train up against the tracks. While it is true that in space up and down have no relevance, the invention was launched.

Start the Road to World Peace
by Ed O’Rourke
The first step is recognition of the limits of military power and, second, a willingness to make serious efforts in pursuing non-war strategies to achieve national and world security.

Future Self-Sufficient Homes
by Mel Moench
It is not if self-sufficient homes will become much more popular—it is when. Today, society doesn’t want self-sufficient homes, but I believe that they are desperately needed by humanity.

Fossil Fuel Facts
by Alan E. Thompson
Everyone has heard of fossil fuels, coal, gas, and oil; how important they are to the world economy, what we will do when they run out, and whether they cause global warming.

The Case for a World Police Force
By Dan Hurwitz
Now that the Iraqi conflict has evolved into a rather nasty restructuring effort, costly in lives and money, and other world hotspots have become, if anything, more worrisome, it might pay to look back and see what might have been done differently had we used less muscle and more imagination.

Global Republics – A Meta-Model for Global Governance
By: Stanislaw (Stan) Skrzeszewski
Globalization and the impact of information and communication technology are leading people to re-think political structures and practices and to consider global governance structures. We need a broad public dialogue on potential meta-theories and models for such structures. Global republics, that is, states that have a global scope and are not restricted by geography provide one potential meta-model.

Environmental Degradation as Both Consequence and Cause of Armed Conflict
by Warwick A. Fox, Michael Renner and Arthur H. Westing
Armed conflict and human-generated environmental degradation are two of the biggest threats to the future well-being of humanity. These two threats are also part of a vicious circle, each exacerbating the other. This paper describes what can be done about mitigating these problems and breaking the vicious circle.