Description
This article examines how the visualization and fictional narration of future warfare have been constituted as a legitimate form of security expertise in the United States and Western Europe.
There is a growing tendency among Western military organizations to produce, publish and present visual fictions about the future of war as tools for anticipating and preventing ‘strategic surprise’. Rather than dismissing these materials as propaganda produced by the military-cultural complex, I argue they should be taken seriously as forms of security knowledge that aim both to harmonize the definition of so-called ‘emerging’ threats within Western military discourse and to encourage the appropriation of military priorities by civilian parliamentarians and youth.
Drawing on 18 interviews, discourse and visual analysis of fictions published by American and French military organizations through the Future Conflict Graphic Novels project (2018–2023) and the Red Team Défense initiative (2019–2023), as well as participant observation at several public events organized by the French military, I analyze the history, contributions, and target audiences of what I term the “weak field of imaginary wars” — a transnational space bringing together science fiction authors, comic book illustrators, design fiction consultants, and military professionals to convert imagination and aesthetics into security knowledge.
Showing how this peculiar genre of expertise rests on genealogies of depoliticization of countercultural imaginaries and relies consistently on forms of Orientalism and distrust toward the public and political arena, this article contributes to critical military studies, visual security studies, and critical sociology of expertise.
