Lead strategic analyst supporting IMCOM's Center for Future Installation Strategies comments on World Futures Society meeting (July 18-20)

Brian Smith
Lead strategic analyst, IMCOM Center for Future Installation Strategies

I am happy to be the guest contributor this week on The Army’s Home.

The Center for Future Installation Strategies is tasked in part with looking at how future trends will impact on IMCOM’s network of installations across the nation and around the world. Part of my task is to look at a range of these trends using the STEEPS framework which includes social/demographic, technology, economic, energy and environmental, political (largely regulatory and policy) and security (international and national security) issues. My colleagues and I identify those trends and then forecast their impact on the Army as an institution and then on installations and communities.

To determine how far into the future we should be looking, we employ a “seventh hill” horizon. Current operations are the first hill, currently planning is the third hill and the future is beyond the sixth hill. At the same time, the issues we identify should have relevance to the immediate environment.

As part of our task, I recently attended the World Futures Society meeting in Chicago on 18-20 July. The purpose of the meeting was to bring together “futurists” and “futures” practitioners and researchers to present their findings and to discuss methods and techniques for “futuring” and forecasting. My goal in attending the meeting was to identify additional trends that we should include in our analysis for IMCOM and to keep current on forecasting methods and techniques.

You can find out more about the World Futures Society and the proceedings of the meeting at www.wfs.org. If you are on Twitter, I tweeted some of the sessions in which I participated under #wfs.

For more information on CFIS check us out at:
https://www.us.army.mil/suite/page/608884