Identifying Critical Technologies in the United States: a Review of the Federal Effort

摘要

The United States government has not sponsored technology foresight as it has been defined and practised by governments in Europe, Japan and elsewhere in the world. Instead, the US government sponsored a parallel effort called 'critical technologies identification' between 1989 and 1999, This paper describes the critical technologies movement in the United States and explores why critical technologies identification was limited in its ability to capture the attention of US government officials and other decisionmakers. The authors suggest possible alternative futures for foresight in the United States.