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We recently reviewed the ESPAS (European Strategy and Policy Analysis System) Horizon Scanning report, Issue 7 f rom March this year. Issue 8 from July adopts the same approach of looking at 14 or 15 signals of change and focussing on three of them to describe in detail using Futures Wheels: Military-grade society Digital tech giants become state actors Green hype bust.   Military grade society  means advanced security protecting Critical National Infrastructure from both at

We recently reviewed the EC Strategic Foresight Report , entitled Resilience 2.0, but ESPAS (the European Strategy and Policy Analysis System) also produces frequent Horizon Scanning reports. Their most recent reports from 2025 (Issues 7 and 8 – earlier Issues do not appear to be easily accessible) identify 14 or 15 signals of change. In each they have focussed on describing the details of three of them. They seem to have deliberately looked for “weak signals”, some very unce

What happens to climate action when the political weather turns populist: more inward-looking, more suspicious of experts, more focused on growth and national pride than on multilateral promises? That’s no longer an abstract question. Across the West, parties and leaders with nativist or “majoritarian” instincts are either in office or within reach of it. Meanwhile, China is doubling down on renewables and exporting the kit to the rest of the world. If you work in energy, ind

The EXTRA Information Hub is a new initiative of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences (WAAS).   The World Academy of Arts and...

Ask a minister how we’re going to pay for pensions, fund healthcare, equip the armed forces, support innovation, or build green...

Introduction It has become a fashionable provocation to assert that "China is going to win, so the question is how America is going to...

In part 1 of this blog, I looked at H.G. Wells’s novel The Shape of Things to Come , published in 1933, and examined what he got right...

THE AFTERMATH In my two earlier blogs, I looked at what occurred at the Summit and the outcome document. In this third blog, I shall...

THE PROCEEDINGS AND THE IMMEDIATE REACTION In my first blog on the UN Summit of the Future I considered the outcome document: “The Pact...

This is an edited version of the presentation which Jonathan Blanchard Smith delivered to the Futures4Europe Conference 2025, held in...

Back in February, the National Preparedness Commi ssion published a report on the resilience of the UK’s food system . It is a...

For the past many years, future and foresight practitioners have been able to base their work on ground that is stable enough to support...