Future directions in HEP: the LHC era and beyond

The LHC era in high energy physics is about to begin, and we may soon be accruing data that unravels the mysteries surrounding electroweak symmetry breaking, and the nature of the Higgs boson. In addition, various data point to the possibility of weak scale supersymmetry as an integral part of physics beyond the Standard Model. At this point in time, there is a wonderful intertwining of cosmological physics and particle physics, and LHC may be helpful in unravelling the mystery of cold dark matter in the universe, and possibly shed light on dark energy. Any new physics uncovered by LHC will of course need to be studied in the precision environment of clean TeV-scale e+ e- collisions, so a case is made for the International Linear Collider, and what it might accomplish in both particle physics and cosmology.