Defense One launches 'Fictional Intelligence'

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 6, 2026

Defense One Launches “Fictional Intelligence” a New Column by Futurists and National-Security Authors Peter W. Singer and August Cole

Washington, D.C. — Defense One is launching “Fictional Intelligence,” a monthly column by authors and national-security futurists Peter W. Singer and August Cole, who will explore the future of warfare, technology, and global security through short, scenario-driven fiction.

Fusing fictional narrative with non-fiction research and forecasting, “Fictional Intelligence” grows out of the best-selling authors’ work with U.S. military and national-security organizations that use short stories and narrative scenarios to think through emerging risks, strategic shocks, and unintended consequences of new technologies. The column will give Defense One readers a new, unique, and engaging lens on the national-security challenges of today and tomorrow.

Singer is a senior fellow at New America and the author of multiple books on war, technology, and the future of conflict. He is also a longtime contributor to Defense One and the author of the recently concluded China Intelligence column. Cole is a former Wall Street Journal defense-industry reporter and Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. The two are the authors of the speculative fiction novels Ghost Fleet and Burn-In, which were later put on U.S. military reading lists, as well as managing partners of Useful Fiction, a company specializing in strategic narrative. 

“Fictional Intelligence has increasingly been used by militaries and policymakers to envision scenarios and stress-test assumptions about the future,” Singer said. “These stories are not predictions, but tools for better thinking about today and tomorrow.”

“It is exciting to add a new way to educate and engage readers,” said Bradley Peniston, Executive Editor at Defense One. “It will be the ideal ‘weekend read’.” 

The column will publish on a monthly cadence and will be available to all Defense One readers. The first in the series will explore the future of space and special operations forces, as well as China’s growing presence in Latin America. 

“Fictional Intelligence” reflects Defense One’s continued focus on how emerging technologies, strategic competition, and institutional choices shape national security outcomes—often in ways that are easier to see through narrative than through white papers alone.

About Defense One: Defense One is a leading news and ideas publication covering national security, defense policy, military operations, and the intersection of technology and warfare.https://www.defenseone.com/

About Peter W. Singer: A leading analyst of 21st-century warfare and technology, Singer is a senior fellow at New America, professor at Arizona State University, and a founder of Useful Fiction LLC. No author, living or dead, has more books on the professional military reading lists.

About August Cole: An associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London and non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, Cole is a founder of Useful Fiction. With P.W. Singer, he is the co-author of Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War and Burn-In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution.

Media Contact: 

• Liz Stein / lstein@govexec.com
• Angela Moorman / contact@useful-fiction.com