Different Lenses on the Future: U.S. and Singaporean Approaches to Strategic Planning

• Main Author: Zorn, Justin
• Other Authors: S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
• Format: Working Paper
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Political science
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/88098; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/40201
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In an age of accelerating global change, effective strategic planning is increasingly a survival imperative for national governments. Singapore has long proven adept in this area, institutionalizing foresight in governance through programmes like interagency scenario planning and, more recently, a Risk Assessment and Horizon Scanning network. Yet Singapore’s approach is enabled as much by cultural, historical, and geographical factors as it is by government willingness to invest in organizational innovation. The aim of this working paper is to compare government strategic planning in Singapore with that of a large country—the United States—and examine the contextual differences that give rise to their divergent approaches. It concludes with an assessment of what the two countries can learn from each other.