The 56th annual edition of the Alpbach European Forum (EAF), my first visit there in fifteen years, had as its theme “The Future: Experience, Experiment, Design”. The EAF consumes the second fortnight of August in the Tyrolean mountain community of Alpbach, a delightful village tucked away...

Moves to create a single European defence force come as the region embarks on a new phase of enlargement. So does this represent the ultimate challenge for federalism? And if so, could it kick‐start cooperation in other areas of mutual protection such as food safety and the environment?

A small part of the budget of the Human Genome Project was reserved for the study of the social, legal and ethical questions raised by personal genetic profiles. Answers may be slow in coming, but around the world public concern increasingly drives the legislative agenda. There is now a pressing...

Speculation, hypothesizing and imagination are the dreamer’s tools. Advanced research and novel technology for the military often profit from what are sometimes unstructured approaches to invention. Once that reality materializes, it may be stranger than the phantasma of the most unleashed of...

During a single, dynamic year of the nineteenth century, politics, economics, culture and technology shifted sharply throughout disparate regions of the world. Some of these changes were culminating events, some sudden and swift, others would need time to take total effect – but all would be...

Purpose – The objective of this paper is to scan the extent of uncertainty and hesitation in the development of plans and strategy. Design/methodology/approach – The author evokes concrete cases of risk aversion, when the action either goes ahead or is stymied by lack of certitude. The...

Purpose – The objective of this paper is to scan flagrant cases of uncertainty and hesitation in the conception of plans and strategy and to assess new results in risk management. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses outstanding examples, present and past (and some future), of both...