Creating Futures Scenarios To Aid In Military Planning: The Use Of The Field Anomaly Relaxation Systems Approach

This paper explains the use of Field Anomaly Relaxation, a systems approach to futures planning, in a planning unit of a large international security organisation. Seven drivers, major influences which cannot be changed, act to provide the boundaries for five future world situations arrayed on a Faustian tree, a map of interconnected scenarios. These future worlds are further developed into rich narratives that describe 20 individual scenarios. The product of the futures work is linked back to the organisation to provoke creative thought and unconfined dialogue designed to contribute to initiatives for fruitful change.