Paul Dragos Aligica &  Kenneth R. Weinstein - The Essential Herman Kahn: In Defense of Thinking (2009)


Introduction


By the time of his untimely death in 1983, Herman Kahn was recognized by both friends and intellectual adversaries as “one of the world’s most creative and best minds.” He was one of the preeminent and best known futures studies scholars, a founding father of the field, with extensive and vital contributions to the debates on the nature of global economic development and its impact on human societies and their environment, as well as a key figure in the field of strategic studies, an area where he was also considered a founder and a leader. His work was followed all over the world and the directions he traced in the public debate on very sensitive issues of crucial public concern have continued to be unaltered today, more than twenty years after his unexpected death. Yet, in spite of the incessant influence of his arguments and ideas, today his intellectual legacy is still to be accounted for and the breath and depth of his contributions are still to be reviewed and analyzed in a systematic way.