Defeating Terrorism: Is It Possible? Is It Probable? By Marvin Cetron

SUMMARY: Guided by input from futurists on potential terrorist scenarios, a leading intelligence trend watcher forecasts that terrorist events will become more common and bloodier in the years ahead, largely initiated by Islamic extremists and backed by an expanding al Qaeda. The war on terror will drag on for decades, and changing this future course represents the biggest challenge that the U.S. (and the West in general) will face.

Time for a Global Welfare System? By Anil Hira

SUMMARY: The sources of the world's most challenging problems can be traced to changes in the global economy. To solve them will require rebuilding global institutions that are effective but that do not trample upon national sovereignties. Rather than relying on charity, these institutions should be empowered to raise revenue (levy a tax) and held accountable to international constituents.

Our Cashless Future By Allen H. Kupetz

SUMMARY: Progress toward the long-forecast "cashless society" remains impaired by inadequate (thus far) solutions to security and privacy issues, as well as ease of use. All three conditions are vital to public acceptance. The ongoing trend of technological convergence--as seen in the ever more multifunction cell phonewill help address all these issues, making the future "electronic wallet" an integral part of your mobile information and communication device. Read longer version in Global Strategies Forum.

Commentaries:

• Scenario: A Cashless New York City by Lisa Bodell. A business futures consultant explores a day in a future cashless Big Apple.
• Rise of the Cashless Do-Gooders by Marty Baker. A Georgia preacher tells the story of the cashless collection plate.
• Violent Crime and Cash: The Connection by David R. Warwick. Privacy concerns about digital cash may be overblown.

The Search for Foresight: The World Future Society's First Conference By Edward Cornish

SUMMARY: Part three of founding president Cornish's memoirs continues his struggle to keep up the extraordinary enthusiasm of new members and supporters, whose ideas were both inspiring and daunting. With the aid of a growing cadre of talented volunteersranging from government officials to Cornish's own young sonsthe Society organized its first, highly successful conference in 1971. Among the participants were MIT's Dennis Meadows, Nobel laureate Glenn T. Seaborg, visionary psychologist B.F. Skinner, socioeconomist Robert Theobald, Hudson Institute founder Herman Kahn, and science fiction writers Arthur C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl.

Visions: Design for the World's Poor By Cynthia G. Wagner

SUMMARY: A photo essay featuring designs on exhibit at Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, focusing on appropriate technologies for the developing world, such as the Global Village Shelter, the bamboo treadle pump, the LifeStraw personal water-purification device, and the One Laptop Per Child project spearheaded by Nicholas Negroponte of MIT Media Lab.