The U.S. Air Force’s Blue Horizons program, in collaboration with Useful Fiction™, is pioneering an innovative approach to military strategy by teaching mid-career leaders how to forecast future trends and communicate through storytelling. The initiative offers both in-person and online courses featuring lectures from a diverse lineup of experts—including New York Times best-selling authors, military commanders, venture capitalists, futurists, and Hollywood creatives such as the co-writers of Game of Thrones and producers of The Hunger Games and Crazy Rich Asians. These sessions are followed by hands-on writing exercises, where participants craft fictional stories rooted in real-world military concerns, turning abstract scenarios into tangible narratives.
Charlie McCann’s article, “Can creative writing help America win wars?”, explores how this storytelling-driven training is reshaping strategic thinking in the military. By integrating creative writing and speculative fiction into military education, the Blue Horizons program helps officers envision how future conflicts and technologies may evolve. One example involves a fictional story of a drone-operating maid named Amelia, whose character helped officers explore the human and technological dynamics of future warfare. Through exercises like these, the program moves beyond traditional checklist planning and fosters adaptive, imaginative thinking. These collaborations between military personnel and professional storytellers are already making an impact at the highest levels, with some authors even briefing the White House. Ultimately, fiction is being reframed as a strategic tool—not just to entertain, but to provoke new ways of understanding and preparing for tomorrow’s battlespace.
https://www.economist.com/1843/2024/10/04/can-creative-writing-help-america-win-wars