Will second the observations here — I don’t know the rest of the professors Diane cites, but Troy Thomas was one of the earliest published thinkers on how the United States should approach counter-terrorism. Most people would not think an Air Force officer would have that kind of impact, but his BENEATH THE SURFACE: INTELLIGENCE PREPARATION OF THE BATTLESPACE FOR COUNTERTERRORISM was one of the first of its kind. Yet another Air Force officer, Sundri Khalsa, made another landmark contribution with her own masters thesis converted into a commercial work, FORECASTING TERRORISM. We are lucky to have their examples.

I’d also like to endorse Diane’s book pick, THE ART OF THE LONG VIEW, and recommend complementing it with Kees van der Heijden’s SCENARIOS: THE ART OF STRATEGIC CONVERSATION. There are a number of structured analytical techniques to support creating alternative futures/scenarios, but the reasons for employing them to support strategic forecasting are best explained in both works.