In advance of NATO’s 75th anniversary in 2024, the NATO Defense College invites fictional intelligence and sci-fi authors from across the Alliance to submit their creative proposal on the theme of “NATO 2099: A Graphic Novel”, a creative project aimed at presenting a futuristic forecast of what the world and the Alliance might look like in the near future.
In 2024, NATO will celebrate its 75th anniversary. This milestone is expected to lead to an avalanche of analysis on NATO’s last decades of existence, and the possible futures for the Alliance. True to its research mantra of thinking innovatively, the NATO Defense College (NDC), as NATO’s premier educational institution, is eager to contribute to the debate on the future of the Alliance and the global scene. To this end, the NDC invites science fiction authors from across the Alliance to embark on this endeavour – through their creative thinking – to inspire current and future decision-makers on how to adapt quickly to new environments and challenges.
Science fiction, while often discredited by dint of its creative and at times outrageous character, holds real added value for research purposes. Not only does science fiction influence the present by projecting inventions (i.e. headsets, mobile phones and tablets), science fiction can leverage the wisdom of the crowd effect: when several authors “see” a similar future, such a future becomes more likely. As such, science fiction has the power of making ideas acceptable. It can entertain a wider public, which under normal circumstances, might not entertain certain ideas, thereby broadening mindsets and fostering critical thinking. Of course, the precondition to this is that science fiction be not fantastical, but is rooted in evidence. (Hence the term FICINT, fictional intelligence.)
Harnessing these benefits, science fiction has been instrumentalized by military organizations in the United States and France to increase preparedness, train critical thinking, and even spot trends in technology and geopolitics. (For example, the idea of Russia attacking Ukraine appeared in Russian science fiction in the 1990s).
Your mission, should you accept it…
The year is 2099, NATO will be celebrating its 150th anniversary. For this reason, sci-fi and fictional intelligence authors are being asked to contribute about 1500 words on what this future might look like. Authors are asked to describe the end state, i.e. 2099, but are free to describe how we got there. Questions to be addressed include the following:
- What does NATO look like in 2099, in terms of membership and mission?
- What major events has it survived and managed between 2024 and 2099? What successes and failures has NATO experienced?
- What is the nature of war in 2099 (where, with what means, at what cost, with what effect)?
- What has changed in the last 75 years, for better or for worse, in terms of technology, society, geopolitics, environment.
- What has NATO learned in the last 75 years?
The compilation of 32 written pieces will be transformed and published into a graphic novel or comic book that narrates a holistic story entitled, “NATO 2099”.
Formalities (Updated 7 November 2023 – extended deadline)
- Upon selection and acceptance, the author enters into a written agreement with the NDC.
- Remuneration: €500 EUR.
- Deadline for submissions (EXTENDED): 30 November 2023 – but the sooner the better.
- Publication is scheduled for May 2024.
We kindly ask you to send us the following documents as attachments on an email to Ms Katja-Elisabeth Herrmann Eufracio at: [email protected] , cc-ing Ms Mary Di Martino at [email protected]:
- Creative proposal
- List of publications
- Curriculum Vitae (Resume)
NDC Public Affairs Office
Collège de Défense de l'OTAN