Forward Engagement is a term coined by Leon Fuerth

Leon Fuerth

Leon Sigmund Fuerth is a former diplomat who served as national security adviser to former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. He was succeeded in that capacity by I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby in January 2001...

, former National Security Advisor to Vice President Al Gore

Al Gore

Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....

, to describe the process of thinking systematic about long-range issues in governance. As a concept, Forward Engagement draws heavily on the fields of Futures Studies and Complex Systems

Complex systems

Complex systems present problems in mathematical modelling.The equations from which complex system models are developed generally derive from statistical physics, information theory and non-linear dynamics, and represent organized but unpredictable behaviors of systems of nature that are considered...

 Research.

Concept

Forward Engagement asserts: (1) that major social change is accelerating at a rate fast enough to challenge the adaptive capacity of whole societies; (2) that governments ought to address such possibilities as far in advance as possible; and (3) that there needs to be a system to help governments visualize more consistently what may be approaching in order to deliberate sufficiently about responses.

Further, Forward Engagement makes the proposition that there has been a shift in the nature of the major problems societies face: they increasingly interact with other problems, blur the lines between foreign and domestic, produce unplanned consequences, and mutate into new problems as parts of continuing processes. Such "complex" societal problems call for interdisciplinary and anticipatory approaches to problem solving.

Project

Forward Engagement has been the subject of a project funded by the George Washington University and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund

Rockefeller Brothers Fund

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund , , is an international philanthropic organisation created and run by members of the Rockefeller family. It was set up in New York City in 1940 as the primary philanthropic vehicle of the five famous Rockefeller brothers: John D...

 and directed by Leon Fuerth since 2001. The project recently examined three massive global contingencies—anthropogenic climate change, a geopolitical power-shift to Asia, and the attainment of means to rapidly and drastically alter human evolution through technology—through a series of working groups led by Fuerth, along with Clyde V. Prestowitz Jr.

Clyde V. Prestowitz Jr.

Clyde Prestowitz, founder and President of the Economic Strategy Institute, served as counselor to the Secretary of Commerce in the Reagan Administration...

, Philip Rubin

Philip Rubin

Philip E. Rubin is an American cognitive scientist and technologist who since 2003 has been the Chief Executive Officer and a Senior Scientist at Haskins Laboratories in New Haven, Connecticut...

, and others. Forward Engagement is additionally the subject of a graduate course at the Elliott School of International Affairs

Elliott School of International Affairs

The Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University is a professional school in international relations. It is located in the heart of Washington, D.C...

.

External links

• Project on Forward Engagement Official Site http://www.forwardengagement.org/index.html