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If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/ authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine and explain the role of foresight in government, while making an attempt to ascertain why foresight is both necessary and rare. The paper aims to identify main areas where foresight is needed as well as the constraints that it faces. It also aims to provide some prescriptions and recommendations for improving both system and process.Design/methodology/approach -The methodology is based on case studies and literature search on futures/forecasting. Furthermore, analysis and observations are based on the author's own participation in different governmental and research environments; in several academic circles; within ''think tanks'' and on the international circuit (mostly at the UN, NATO, IAEA, IIASA and OECD) as well as within the Scandinavian scene.Findings -Several methodologies and techniques that are identified here may allow people to help perceive, evaluate and control the effects of their actions, present as well as future. However, they have, so far, only been used spasmodically. One reason for this state of affairs is that the difference between ''well-structured'' (normal) and ''ill-structured'' (futures type)problems has not been properly identified or satisfactorily solved. The political system faces three major problems: the problem of competence; the problem of deliverability; and the problem of legitimacy. All of these can be helped by the understanding and application of proper foresight methods and techniques.Originality/value -From the design/methodology point of view, this paper draws on the combined sources of international practice and theoretical implications. Its findings are easily comprehended and hence useful for their practical application for decision making on global as well as regional problems. The concept of fully ''learning to unlearn'' is of primary importance, as well as that of not ''discounting the future'', for which several methods and techniques have been analyzed and suggested.Some of the principal ideas, with inputs from subsequent discussions with a variety of different experts, were developed further and presented to the NATO AC/243 (Panel 7)

This paper demonstrates how industrial ecology constitutes a promising strategic instrument to help implement sustainability by focusing on resource productivity, producer responsibility and collaboration in society, but with a particular responsibility concerning the role of industry. In order fully to understand and make use of Industrial Ecology, it has to be regarded as a systems oriented, emerging concept as well as an ongoing process, where informed strategies must be developed in close collaboration among industrial leaders, external decision-makers and specialists, in order to advance the political agenda.With the development of an ecologically informed economy, our industrial society would benefit from theory and principles in natural sciences, thermodynamics and ecology. The paper outlines the framework for such a process.

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