In this episode Mick sits down and has a coffee with August Cole, author of Ghost Fleet, a useful fiction thriller about the future of war. August discusses how fiction and narratives can drive innovation in national security and defence. Mick also asks August to discuss innovation and his project, The Art of Future War, that seeks to engage the creative mind in discussing how future war will evolve. August also gives a unique definition of war. An easy 20 min episode for your mid week commute.

August Cole is an author and analyst specializing in national security issues.

He is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the Atlantic Council. He is the director of the Art of Future Warfare project, which explores narrative fiction and visual media for insight into the future of conflict. He is also writer-in-residence at Avascent, an independent strategy and management consulting firm focused on the defense and aerospace sectors.

His fiction writing tackles themes at the core of American foreign policy and national security in the 21st Century. His first book Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War, is a collaborative novel written with Peter W. Singer. This near-future thriller about the next world war was published in June 2015 by Eamon Dolan Books, a Houghton Mifflin Harcourt imprint. See more at www.ghostfleetbook.com.