Contents of the Current Issue

Executive Summaries

10 Imperatives for Peace
by John Richardson
SUMMARY: Sri Lanka's ongoing civil wars have been fueled by development failures that could have been prevented. The author, an international development scholar who has studied Sri Lanka's conflict from a multidisciplinary perspective over the past 20 years, outlines the 10 "imperatives" for preventing deadly conflict and terrorism:

1. Maintain public order;
2. Forgo polarizing political rhetoric;
3. Meet the needs and aspirations of young ("fighting-age") men;
4. Support professional, apolitical internal security forces;
5. Promote development policies that enable citizens to live a good life and feel optimistic about their and their children's future prospects;
6. Create development policies that take a middle ground using the best of capitalist and socialist principles;
7. Promote democratic governance that is open to self-correction;
8. Encourage multinational businesses to take a proactive role in successful development policies;
9. Institutionalize the long-term view with programs that won't disappear with a change of administration; and
10. Rigorously weigh the opportunity costs of military vs. nonmilitary interventions in complex problems.

Strategy and the Search for Peace
by Gregory D. Foster
SUMMARY: A new approach to "strategy" is needed that includes strategies for global peace. Because of the future's uncertainty, complexity, and turbulence, governments and civic organizations need to take a more strategic approach to resolving potential conflicts, and aim to avert those conflicts and crises by addressing their underlying causes. When the aim is peace, the goal of strategy is not necessarily to attain a competitive advantage but to avoid the conflicts of competition.

PLUS: Commentaries by Edward N. Luttwak of the Center for Strategic and International Studies; James N. Rosenau, political science professor at George Washington University; Joergen Oestroem Moeller, a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore;  Andrew J. Bacevich, a professor of international relations at Boston University; and Pamela R Aall, vice president of the U.S. Institute for Peace's education program.

OUTLOOK 2007
by WFS staff
SUMMARY: A roundup of the year's most thought-provoking forecasts in technology, society, energy, health and medicine, religion and values, the environment, economics, and much more. Order now.

Technology's Promise: Highlights from the TechCast Project
by William E. Halal
SUMMARY: Update of the ongoing Technology Forecast project, which has for more than a decade enlisted the insights of technology specialists to forecast significant breakthroughs, estimated time of mainstream penetration, and level of certainty of the forecast. Among the topics receiving particular note: alternative energy, desalination, quantum computing, virtual education, smart robots, artificial organs, life extension, automated highways, and space tourism. The article concludes with a decade-by-decade scenario of how the "technological revolution" may unfold through 2050.

Partners for Progress: Creating Global Strategies for Humanity's Future
by Cynthia G. Wagner
SUMMARY: Relationships matter, concluded several speakers at the World Future Society's annual meeting. Highlights included insights from Ray Kurzweil, Joel Garreau, Pamela Wallin, and many others. Read article.

VISIONS: Rethinking Emergency Housing
by Patrick Tucker; images by StudioRED / Hord Coplan Macht
SUMMARY: Rehousing the displaced as quickly as possible is a high priority when disaster strikes. Well designed and planned modular constructions - beyond the "trailer park" paradigm - could become more than a temporary solution to housing crises.

To order the print edition of the November-December  2006 issue of THE FUTURIST ($4.95 plus $3 postage and handling) or to become a member of the World Future Society ($49 per year).

COPYRIGHT © 2006 WORLD FUTURE SOCIETY, 7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 450, Bethesda, Maryland 20814. Tel. 301-656-8274. E-mail info@wfs.org. Send comments about our web pages to: webmaster@wfs.org. All rights reserved.