Uniting
Research and Policy

August Cole is an author exploring the future of conflict through fiction and other forms of “FICINT” [Fictional Intelligence] storytelling. His talks, short stories, and workshops have taken him from speaking at the Nobel Institute in Oslo to presenting on future warfare at SXSW Interactive to lecturing at West Point. With Peter W. Singer, he is the co-author of the best-seller “Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War” (2015) and “Burn In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution” (2020). Singer and Cole collaborate on futures projects through Useful Fiction, a consultancy.

August is a non-resident fellow at the Brute Krulak Center for Innovation and Creativity at Marine Corps University and a non-resident senior fellow at the Scowcroft Center on Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council; he directed the Council’s Art of Future Warfare Project, which explored creative works for insight into the future of conflict, from its inception in 2014 through 2017. August is a regular speaker to private sector, academic and US and allied government audiences. As well, he leads the Strategy team for the Warring With Machines AI ethics project at the Peace Research Institute of Oslo.

August is represented by John Taylor “Ike” Williams and Katherine Flynn of Kneerim, Williams.