Small Wars Journal

Atlantic Council Announces New Art of Future Warfare Project

Thu, 11/20/2014 - 7:51pm

Atlantic Council Announces New Art of Future Warfare Project

The Atlantic Council today (Wwednesday) announced the launch of the Art of Future Warfare (AFW) project, housed in the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, that aims to create a world in which artists—writers, illustrators, directors, videographers, and others— and creativity enjoy a valued place in the defense establishment’s planning and preparation for the future of warfare and conflict.

Funded by the Lund fellowship in the Emerging Defense Challenges practice, AFW will cultivate a community of interest in ideas arising from the intersection of creativity and how global trends, disruptive technologies, and novel warfighting concepts may animate tomorrow’s conflicts. The project will include War on the Rocks as a media partner and publish content on WOTR’s “Art of War” blog.

The project will curate artistic renderings of future warfare through crowd-sourced “war-art challenges,” which will be reviewed by a panel of Atlantic Council experts and guest judges. The best works will be published in a collection that will aid the national security community in thinking about and planning for emerging threats.

The theme of AFW’s first challenge is “The Next Great War.” Contestants will submit journalistic written accounts akin to a front-page story describing the outbreak of a future great power conflict. Entries should be between 1,500 and 2,500 words long and must be submitted on the AFW website by December 31, 2014.