SAMI Consulting
@sami4sight.bsky.social
SAMI are futures domain experts, using tailored foresight techniques and expert-led futures exploration to deliver actionable insights and robust strategies.
How decarbonisation and populism might interact: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/decarbo...
Decarbonisation in a Populist Age
This blog is the third in the SIP blog series, a set of blogs shared among the partners of the Sustainable Innovation Pathways project. This cross-border, collaborative effort brings together foresigh...
www.samiconsulting.co.uk
December 18, 2025 at 3:48 PM
How decarbonisation and populism might interact: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/decarbo...
Some thoughts about the comments on scenario planning in the recent Covid-19 enquiry reports: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/the-nee...
“The need for multiple scenario planning.” Covid-19 inquiry – Module 2 – emergency decision making
Baroness Hallett has recently published two reports (Vol 1 and Vol 2) on emergency decision-making across the four UK governments during the Covid-19 pandemic. This follows on from Module 1 which we r...
www.samiconsulting.co.uk
December 11, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Some thoughts about the comments on scenario planning in the recent Covid-19 enquiry reports: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/the-nee...
What impact is decarbonisation having on defence strategy?
The Defence-Economy Paradox: Why Decarbonisation Has Become Defence Strategy
This blog is the second in the SIP blog series, a set of blogs shared among the partners of the Sustainable Innovation Pathways project. This cross-border, collaborative effort brings together foresig...
www.samiconsulting.co.uk
December 5, 2025 at 11:02 AM
What impact is decarbonisation having on defence strategy?
Can we reframe the ideas of Net Zero? www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/the-age...
The Age of Realpolitik: Why Net Zero Needs a New Logic
This blog is the first in the SIP blog series, a set of blogs shared among the partners of the Sustainable Innovation Pathways project. This cross-border, collaborative effort brings together foresigh...
www.samiconsulting.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Can we reframe the ideas of Net Zero? www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/the-age...
A second blog on another recent ESPAS Horizon Scanning report: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/espas-h...
ESPAS Horizon Scanning Issue 8
We recently reviewed the ESPAS (European Strategy and Policy Analysis System) Horizon Scanning report, Issue 7 from March this year. Issue 8 from July adopts the same approach of looking at 14 or 15 s...
www.samiconsulting.co.uk
October 29, 2025 at 12:06 PM
A second blog on another recent ESPAS Horizon Scanning report: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/espas-h...
Some thoughts on recently published ESPAS paper on horizon scanning and future trends: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/espas-h...
ESPAS Horizon Scanning
We recently reviewed the EC Strategic Foresight Report, entitled Resilience 2.0, but ESPAS (the European Strategy and Policy Analysis System) also produces frequent Horizon Scanning reports. Their mos...
www.samiconsulting.co.uk
October 24, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Some thoughts on recently published ESPAS paper on horizon scanning and future trends: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/espas-h...
How might the path of decarbonisation change in the future? www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/climate...
Climate in a Populist Age: Why Decarbonisation Won’t Stop But Will Get Messier
What happens to climate action when the political weather turns populist: more inward-looking, more suspicious of experts, more focused on growth and national pride than on multilateral promises? That...
www.samiconsulting.co.uk
October 16, 2025 at 2:20 PM
How might the path of decarbonisation change in the future? www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/climate...
Looking at the recently created EXTRA Information Hub: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/the-ext...
The EXTRA Information Hub
The EXTRA Information Hub is a new initiative of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences (WAAS). The World Academy of Arts and Sciences was founded in 1960 by eminent intellectuals to provide a forum w...
www.samiconsulting.co.uk
October 8, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Looking at the recently created EXTRA Information Hub: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/the-ext...
Some thoughts n the UK Government’s Resilience Action Plan: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/the-uk-...
The UK Government Resilience Action Plan
The Resilience Action Plan, produced by the Cabinet Office, sets out the Government's strategic approach to resilience. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Pat McFadden, describes how the whole ...
www.samiconsulting.co.uk
October 3, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Some thoughts n the UK Government’s Resilience Action Plan: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/the-uk-...
A look into EU thinking about resilience: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/resilie...
Resilience 2.0: Empowering the EU to Thrive amid Turbulence and Uncertainty
The EU’s 2025 Strategic Foresight Report focuses on resilience, dealing with the increasing levels of uncertainty in its environment. It begins with a discussion of global megatrends and specific iss...
www.samiconsulting.co.uk
September 24, 2025 at 1:35 PM
A look into EU thinking about resilience: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/resilie...
Some thoughts about technology and net zero: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/net-zer...
Net Zero Technology Outlook
The Government Office for Science has produced an updated report on the technology mix needed in key emitting sectors to reach net zero by 2050 - Runners and Riders: the tech race to 2050 – Futures, F...
www.samiconsulting.co.uk
September 12, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Some thoughts about technology and net zero: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/net-zer...
Will we see limits to growth? www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/why-gro...
Why Growth? Between Necessity and Reckoning
Ask a minister how we’re going to pay for pensions, fund healthcare, equip the armed forces, support innovation, or build green infrastructure, and the answer will be the same, whether spoken aloud or...
www.samiconsulting.co.uk
July 17, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Will we see limits to growth? www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/why-gro...
Some thoughts on tensions and strains between the USA and China: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/america...
America or China - Who Starts Losing First?
IntroductionIt has become a fashionable provocation to assert that "China is going to win, so the question is how America is going to lose." Beneath lies a grim truth: the post-war Western consensus i...
www.samiconsulting.co.uk
July 11, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Some thoughts on tensions and strains between the USA and China: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/america...
In the second of our blogs on the HG Wells' novel 'The Shape of Things to Come’ we discuss some ideas about what he might have thought about the changes since the 1930s: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/the-sha...
The Shape of Things to Come – Today Part 2
In part 1 of this blog, I looked at H.G. Wells’s novel The Shape of Things to Come, published in 1933, and examined what he got right and what he did not foresee. Wells and his own future In real l...
www.samiconsulting.co.uk
June 25, 2025 at 2:00 PM
In the second of our blogs on the HG Wells' novel 'The Shape of Things to Come’ we discuss some ideas about what he might have thought about the changes since the 1930s: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/the-sha...
What ideas did HG Wells get right? Some thoughts on ‘The Shape of Things to Come’: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/the-sha...
The Shape of Things to Come – Today: Part 1
Introduction Not nearly enough attention is paid today to H.G. Wells, one of the giants of foresight. What is distinctive about his novel The Shape of Things to Come is that it imagines the future fro...
www.samiconsulting.co.uk
June 18, 2025 at 2:06 PM
What ideas did HG Wells get right? Some thoughts on ‘The Shape of Things to Come’: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/the-sha...
Today we published the third of our blogs on the 2024 UN Summit of the Future: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/the-un-...
The UN Summit of the Future: Part 3
THE AFTERMATHIn my two earlier blogs, I looked at what occurred at the Summit and the outcome document. In this third blog, I shall consider the extent of any effect it may have had. The post-Summit...
www.samiconsulting.co.uk
June 11, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Today we published the third of our blogs on the 2024 UN Summit of the Future: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/the-un-...
Some reflections and thoughts on the context for the UN Summit of the Future and the Pact for the Future: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/the-un-...
The UN Summit of the Future: Part 1
THE OUTCOME DOCUMENT: “PACT FOR THE FUTURE”Introduction In September, 2021, the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, published a report, “Our Common Agenda”, on how Member States could respond bett...
www.samiconsulting.co.uk
May 29, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Some reflections and thoughts on the context for the UN Summit of the Future and the Pact for the Future: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/the-un-...
How might the use of AI impact futures practice? www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/futures...
Futures Practice in an Age of AI – Beyond Prediction to Engagement
This is an edited version of the presentation which Jonathan Blanchard Smith delivered to the Futures4Europe Conference 2025, held in Vienna, 14-15 May, which explored the theme of Futures-Oriented Co...
www.samiconsulting.co.uk
May 23, 2025 at 12:28 PM
How might the use of AI impact futures practice? www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/futures...
How might AI impact strategic foresight? www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/beyond-...
Beyond Scenarios: Five Ways AI Is Reshaping Strategic Foresight
Most of us who think about the future—professionally, strategically, or just out of curiosity—have probably tried asking ChatGPT to generate scenarios about how the world might look in a decade. At fi...
www.samiconsulting.co.uk
May 15, 2025 at 2:32 PM
How might AI impact strategic foresight? www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/beyond-...
What are some of the issues for food resilience in the UK? www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/just-in...
Just in Case: 7 steps to narrow the UK civil food resilience gap
Back in February, the National Preparedness Commission published a report on the resilience of the UK’s food system. It is a substantial, detailed piece of work, an Executive Summary plus the main rep...
www.samiconsulting.co.uk
May 8, 2025 at 3:06 PM
What are some of the issues for food resilience in the UK? www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/just-in...
Some thought son the melting Arctic ice: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/implica...
Implications of Arctic ice melting
One of the challenges of Futures thinking is the way that trends and drivers interact with each other in complex ways, creating unexpected second- and third-order effects which typically can be consid...
www.samiconsulting.co.uk
May 2, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Some thought son the melting Arctic ice: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/implica...
What weak signals do you pay attention to? www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/weak-si...
April 10, 2025 at 12:27 PM
What weak signals do you pay attention to? www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/weak-si...
Some thoughts in on our list of drivers for change: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/drivers...
Drivers of change – faster and faster, deeper and wider
SAMI continues to maintain and track key drivers of change through ongoing horizon scanning, and we noted a couple of years ago that the rate of change was increasing. In this latest update, we pick o...
www.samiconsulting.co.uk
April 2, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Some thoughts in on our list of drivers for change: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/drivers...
Was the Heathrow fire a ‘black swan’ event? www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/heathro...
Heathrow – black swan or white elephant?
It is a week since a fire at an electricity substation forced the closure of Heathrow airport for 24 hours, much to annoyance of several thousand air passengers. The government has demanded an explana...
www.samiconsulting.co.uk
March 29, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Was the Heathrow fire a ‘black swan’ event? www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/heathro...
Navigating uncertainty with futures thinking: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/no-soli...
No solid place to stand – futures thinking in times of increasing uncertainty
For the past many years, future and foresight practitioners have been able to base their work on ground that is stable enough to support reasoned assumptions and thoughtful scenario development. But w...
www.samiconsulting.co.uk
March 14, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Navigating uncertainty with futures thinking: www.samiconsulting.co.uk/post/no-soli...