Monday, June 28, 2010

Scenario planning and spying


The top news story in the US today was the arrest of 10 people alleged to be Russian “deep cover” agents tasked with infiltrating US policymaking circles. An intriguing detail - one which reminds us of the Cold War history of scenario planning (and futures studies more generally) and underlines the continuing widespread usage of scenario planning methods in top policymaking circles today - is that one of those arrested, Donald Heathfield, a Harvard Kennedy School of Government graduate, developed his career as a professional scenario planner. Heathfield is CEO of Future Map, a scenario planning consultancy, is a published author on the subject and in 2009, filed a U.S. patent application for his own scenario planning method.


Picture: Kremlin star (by Ghirlandajo, used under Creative Commons licensing via Wikimedia Commons)

Posted by Zhan Li on 06/28 at 06:41 PM
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