Paris France – As France’s parliament prepares to vote Wednesday on plans to increase military spending, France’s armed forces appear poised to continue hiring science fiction writers to imagine future threats to national security. Until now, the science fiction novelists of the project Red Team Defense They have written more than a dozen stories and published two books dealing with war based on mass misinformation, bioterrorism, and a pirate nation. Even President Emmanuel Macron is reading them.
‘Chronicle of a cultural death foretold’ is set in the near future. The Armed Forces have to evacuate French and European citizens from Grande-City after rumors spread of a biological attack in high schools. The pathogen is a type of coronavirus that causes severe respiratory problems and sepsis.
But the soldiers face a challenge they couldn’t see coming. In this sci-fi world, citizens have been divided into communities, or “safe spheres,” based on what they want to see, hear, and believe.
“There are communities structured around a deliberate refusal to see certain parts of reality, to the point that if you refuse to see something, it ceases to exist for you,” explains Virginie Tournay, co-author of the story. “Vegans can choose not to see meat dishes, or even butcher shops on the street.”
It is the perfect terrain for the enemy to carry out a massive disinformation campaign. Bombarded by fake news, some safe quarters are beginning to mistrust the evacuation efforts of the Armed Forces. The French soldiers are disoriented and their internal cohesion begins to crack.
“Today, fake news is everywhere. That there are groups that adhere to fake news is a reality,” says Virginie Tournay. “But until now we haven’t taken the issue to the extreme, where there are communities structured around alternate realities based not just on fake news, but on personal preference. Here, reality and virtual reality are completely confused.”
Science fiction and France’s next military budget
The National Assembly, the Lower House of the French Parliament, will vote on Wednesday, June 7, for the next military budget, which foresees an increase to 413,000 million euros from 2024 to 2030, a third more than in the previous seven-year period. Any future science fiction project, such as the Red Team, would enter the “Innovation” budget of 10,000 million euros.
In the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron and his government argue that a significant increase in military spending is necessary for France to face modern and future threats.
The budget will go to the Upper House, the Senate, before being voted on for the last time in the National Assembly. The government hopes that the final vote will take place before the annual military parade on July 14.
The teams
Red Team: Science fiction authors and graphic designers.
Blue Team: Analysts of the French Armed Forces.
Purple Team: Civilian and military experts that the Red Team can call upon.
Black Team: PSL University, in charge of operations.
the creative process
Virginie Tournay applied to write science fiction stories for the Ministry of the Armed Forces after seeing a job application at LinkedIn. Tournay is a researcher in Political Science at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). Before submitting her candidacy, she had already written and published a science fiction novel.
She was selected to be part of the Red Team, along with a dozen other writers and graphic designers. None are members of the Armed Forces. Her job is to create stories and graphics that imagine future threats between 2030 and 2060 for the Armed Forces to reflect on.
They present their work to the Blue Team, made up of analysts from the Armed Forces. Tournay explains that the two teams have a “gentlemen’s agreement” whereby no one trespasses on the other’s territory.
“This experiment only works because the creative and analytical parts are separate,” he explains.
“On the creative side, we produce the stories and present them. But it’s not up to us, as Red Team, to draw military lessons from them. I couldn’t even tell you who analyzes them. That gives us immense freedom, because we don’t have to think in how our stories will be received. And that’s very important, because otherwise we wouldn’t allow ourselves to create totally dystopian stories. We have complete creative freedom.”
The University Paris Sciences & Lettres (PSL) manages the operations of the project. Its vice president, Cédric Denis-Rémis, says that there were two key selection criteria for authors and graphic designers. First, they had to have published at least one work of science fiction.
Second, they had to commit, before being hired, to drop an idea if the group wanted to go in another direction. Two consultants, both anthropologists, were hired to act as referees.
“Her superpower is saying, ‘We’re keeping this, we’re not keeping that,'” he explains. “They are capable of arbitrating within the group, so that it can advance.”
PSL University has also put in place a team of researchers and scientists that the Red Team can turn to if they need specific knowledge and experience.
keep a low profile
For some of the members of the Red Team, producing material for the Army does not fit with their identity as freelance writers and graphic designers.
“Some authors work under a pseudonym,” says Tournay. “For full-time science fiction writers, it would be very, very difficult to work openly with the military. Because science fiction is, by definition, a contentious field that rejects ‘the establishment.'”
Like most French university researchers, Virginie Tournay is a civil servant. “For me, this falls within the public service. My vocation is to strengthen and improve the functioning of the State, of the sovereign State,” she affirms.
Commander Jean-Baptiste Colas of the Armed Forces Agency for Defense Innovation (AID) says the goal of storytellers like Tournay is to get French military thinkers out of their comfort zone and away from groupthink.
“In the 21st century, given the current crises and those that we will go through in the future, we must know how to surround ourselves with people who will take us away from our preconceived ideas, prejudices and classic organizational structures,” he says.
Are the French doing something new?
The French Armed Forces are not the first to approach the world of science fiction. The Sigma Forum has provided science fiction consulting services to US officials for years.
The British Ministry of Defense (MOD) is also dabbling in the genre. Earlier this year, the Ministry released “eight visions of the future” written by two renowned American science fiction writers, Peter Singer and August Cole.
“Thinking the unimaginable is nothing more than a day at the office for talented science fiction writers,” said Chief Science Adviser Dame Angela McLean. “Who wouldn’t want to hear what people like that have to say?”
Colas insists that France’s approach is different.
“France has done it the French way. The Anglo-Saxon approach is very technology-focused,” he says (the French use the term “Anglo-Saxon” to refer to the British, American, Canadian and Australian, or a mix of all four).
Tails does not want to be less than the “Anglo-Saxons”.
“For example, ‘Ghost Fleet,’ by Peter Singer and August Cole, is a thriller technological. It deals with defense issues, but from a very technological point of view,” he explains. “France took the risk of having a group of authors who deal with topics related to philosophy, sociology and psychology, which is not necessarily what our allies do. Anglo-Saxons”.
Why science fiction?
Stories offer an alternative to the standard multi-page reports that decision makers have to read.
“We created these stories as an escape route. They are like a mini Netflix for decision makers,” explains Commander Colas. “That is why today, the President of the Republic included, can access these stories and immerse himself in the context of these threats. It is a good change with respect to the reports that [el presidente] go every day, which can be a bit dark, blunt and dry.”
Colas says that President Emmanuel Macron even asked for a high-security hotline so he could ask the Red Team questions.
The story “After Carbonic Night” explores warfare based on the use of energy and has raised reflections in the Armed Forces on energy consumption, particularly fuel, and the dependence on heavy vehicles in combat zones.
It describes record temperatures sparking a series of mega-fires that burn for months. Energy saving becomes necessary for immediate survival. The soldiers are equipped with a special protective equipment ‘Enskin’, which includes communication tools and guarantees energy management. They face off against enemy “Wenzis”, small mosquito-like robots that bite their opponents to drain their energy.
Colas says that the Red Team was invited to participate in the reflections on the new generation aircraft carrier of the Navy, which will replace the Charles de Gaulle. The Red Team imagined possible hacker attacks, which had not been anticipated by the engineers and industry experts involved.
“Thanks to the Red Team,” explains Colas, “when it came to protecting the close perimeter of the warship, that is, the area very, very close to it, parts of the aircraft carrier’s security arrangement were modified.” He did not elaborate, for obvious reasons of defense secrecy.
What awaits the Red Team?
Red Team has completed their mission, for now. The fourth and final season of scenarios will be presented to the Armed Forces at the end of June. Two stories will be available in bookstores in early 2024. The stories on sale to the public will be redacted, so as not to reveal classified information “or give bad ideas to our enemies!” says Colas.
He is confident that the project, which has cost two million euros, has proven its worth.
“We are studying what would be feasible to implement, perhaps a more ambitious program that includes not only the defense sector,” he says. “What is certain is that the adventure is not going to end. It will change its format and perhaps incorporate more actors than the experiment.”
*Text adapted from its original in English
