Paper short abstract:

This paper explores and analyses how a range of regimes – in Africa and beyond – imagine and, in turn, enact and foreclose the future in contexts where political contestation itself is either limited or non-existent.

Paper long abstract:

The future – broadly conceived – is the central concern of governments and policy-makers across the globe. It is also, though, for many of these actors principally a realm of insecurity and anxiety. In liberal democracies, the future heralds unending crises which must be predicted or mitigated, from terrorist attacks and pandemics to environmental disaster (Anderson, 2010; Massumi, 2015). In many authoritarian states, the future is an unwelcome discursive and policy arena for leaders and parties who fear being rapidly undercut through unpredictable social, economic and political realignments beyond their control (Hellmeier and Weidmann, 2020; Wedeen, 2019).

There are, however, a sub-set of authoritarian governments for whom the future is not only presented as a positive space but as the defining focus of governance and political authority. From the UAE and Singapore to Rwanda and Kazakhstan, policy-makers emphasize not only seizing the opportunities presented by the future but developing governance regimes which promote and embrace “disruption” (UAE Ministry of Possibilities, 2022) and moving away from “business as usual” (Government of Rwanda, 2020).

This paper begins to explore and analyse how these regimes – and the futurocratic research and policy cadres at their heart – imagine and, in turn, enact and foreclose the future in contexts where political contestation itself is either limited or non-existent. In doing so, the study underscores the fundamental sense of insecurity which binds these seemingly bullishly confident regimes together.