International Futures

Prologue

It is now half a century since the emergence of the first computer models for thinking about possible long-term global futures and for considering how we might, in at least some small way, make those futures better. This volume surveys and reports on the field of global modeling, including early world models and more recent integrated assessment models. In the process of that review, considering strengths, weaknesses, and possible future directions, the book gives special attention to a modeling project that I have led, namely that around the International Futures (IFs) system. At least some parts of the volume should be of interest to a wide range of those thinking seriously about global change: students and scholars, policy analysts ...