Abstract
The Future Hunters course at the Command and General Staff Officer College provides emerging Army leaders with vital tools and skills to understand and make decisions regarding long-term future operational environments. The course starts with the premise that the future is uncertain, complex, and unpredictable. Students learn to manage, even profit from, this uncertain environment through strategic foresight, a discipline in which systematic thinking and rigorous frameworks are applied to complex, uncertain environments to generate logical projections of potential future conditions, which serve as decision support tools. Through immersion in future hunter concepts, students learn to appreciate those provocative ideas, even absurd ones, that might help move us out of our comfort zone. The challenge with thinking about the future is that we often envision it as similar to the present when it is decidedly not so. Ridiculous or edgy ideas make us think more broadly and help us to prepare for a plausible future, especially if it is one in which we do not want to live. Ridiculous ideas can help lead the Army’s change, ultimately preventing surprise and reducing risk for our national security. The Future Hunters course is being incorporated into the curricula of several of our university partners as a form of applied learning.
Authors
Kira Graves
Kira Graves is the Assistant TRADOC G-2, Director for the Critical Thinking Enterprise at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Professor Graves leads the Learning In A New Era initiative and is transitioning the Electronic Intern Initiative into a TRADOC-wide program. She teaches the Future Hunters course at the Command and General Staff Officer College at Army University.
Hannah M. Scott
Hannah M. Scott is a Human Resources Specialist and the Intern/Fellow Program Manager with the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command. Mrs. Scott advocates for partnering with colleges and universities to expose students to service with the federal government and create a robust pipeline of new, diverse civilian talent that will become our Army's future leaders.
Michelle Black
Michelle Black is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science of the University of Nebraska–Omaha, Co-director for the Nebraska Deterrence Laboratory at the University of Nebraska, Security Innovation Academic Programming director, and researcher for the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center. He is a research fellow for the National Strategic Research Institute at the University of Nebraska and a Co-Editor-in-Chief for the Space and Defense Journal. Professor Black has over 17 years of professional experience with the Department of Defense.
Kathryn H. Floyd
Kathryn H. Floyd is the Director of William & Mary's Whole of Government Center of Excellence. Professor Floyd directs the Center's National Security and Foreign Affairs e-internship program. Professor Floyd is a published author and, most recently, published in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia, Whole-of-Government Crisis Management: From Research to Practice.
Mallory Lucier-Greer
Mallory Lucier-Greer is a Human Development and Family Science Professor at Auburn University. Professor Lucier-Greer's research focuses on the well-being of families, particularly military families. She has a clinical background as a marriage and family therapist.
Sorin Adam Matei
Sorin Adam Matei is a Professor and Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Education and Director of the FORCES Initiative. Professor Matei is the author of several books, most recently Digital and Social Media Regulation: A Comparative Perspective of the U.S. and Europe
Kate Thornton
Kate Thornton is the Director of Global Education and the Director of International Outreach for the Hunger Solutions Institute at Auburn University. Professor Thorton helped develop one of the only academic minors in Hunger Studies in the U.S. She is the Kirchner Food Fellowship Program Director.
