Jennifer O’Rourke
PhD Student (National Security, Intelligence & Defence)
- MA, International Affairs (NPSIA); BA Journalism, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Jennifer O’Rourke is a PhD student at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, supervised by Dr. Alex Wilner. Her work sits at the nexus of international affairs, national security and strategic foresight. Jennifer is a strong advocate for strategic foresight. She believes it offers our best chance to prepare for the future and guard against strategic surprise, and that it remains a widely misunderstood and underused field. In military and national security settings in particular, she sees foresight as an essential component that should be built into every level of planning and strategy.
Her doctoral research takes a hard, critical look at the field she practices. It asks whether foresight falls short, and if so, where and why, and what it would take to strengthen it. The project examines which countries institutionalize foresight and why, whether foresight methods can meet the standards of academic rigour, and how foresight performs when applied to Canadian defence and security challenges. Jennifer’s goal is to add to the field and help bring futures thinking to the forefront of how institutions plan and decide.
Jennifer brings nearly a decade of strategic foresight practice in the Government of Canada. She was recruited to Policy Horizons Canada specifically for its work on the future of geopolitics, which became a study of the future of the rules-based international order. She also contributed to the Emerging Global Challenges project with SSHRC and to studies on the future of work, the next digital economy and the biodigital convergence. At Employment and Social Development Canada she built and led a foresight unit, contributed to Deputy Minister-level initiatives, and designed foresight training for teams across the department. Most recently she managed strategic foresight in the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Risk Assessment and Foresight Hub, where she led the foresight team and founded a Government of Canada health futures network
She has taught strategic foresight at the Canadian Forces College, and she has designed and delivered foresight training for analysts, innovation teams, senior leaders and military audiences. Before entering international affairs, she worked as a journalist.
Research interests: strategic foresight and futures methodology, foresight in government, international order and geopolitics, national security and defence, emerging and disruptive technologies, influence and communications.