Tackling the Geopolitics of Standardization: Lessons from Canada's Strategic Foresight-to-Standards Pilot Project

Strategic foresight is the systematic exploration of emerging and future developments. Standardization is the process by which a common technical language is created and applied to new concepts and evolving technologies. Both strategic foresight and standardization address long-term technological change across industries, societies, and economies. And yet rarely are the two used in tandem to anticipate emerging standardization priorities that are critical to national interests. Against the backdrop of a global “technological race,” the foresight-to-standards process provides a novel approach to anticipate the nature of emerging technologies and their plausible influence on national, military, and economic interests, and to direct standardization efforts to align with strategic objectives. Our article provides an in-depth exploration of the Standards Council of Canada's experimentation with foresight between 2018 and 2021, informed by first-hand experience and observation. We describe and assess the SCC's use of strategic foresight in standardization, providing insights on capacity building, collaboration, leadership, decision making, and action.