TO BOLDLY GO: Leadership, Strategy, and Conflict in the 21st Century and Beyond.

TO BOLDLY GO Leadership, Strategy, and Conflict in the 21st Century and Beyond

Editors: Jonathan Klug and Steven Leonard Published by: Casemate Publishers, Oxford, 304pp, $59.52.

Science fiction aficionados will well-recognise the title from a Star Trek motto. To Boldly Go is a compilation of 35 short essays on leadership, strategy and conflict using examples from science fiction works. It has been written by a large variety of authors. Their background is very diverse, too: from policy advisors and ground-level military leaders to storytellers and innovators. All of them showing examples and how art, in this case science fiction, and real life feed off each other.

Their analysis mostly goes around on how we can learn from examples of leadership, conflict and strategy in science fiction. But the analysis of these topics extends to several sub-topics, including gender and race equality and the importance of experience over intelligence or international relations. Recent developments in technology and space exploration have been creating a momentum for science fiction. Some months ago, the space company Blue Origin launched former Star Trek's Captain Kirk (William Shatner) into space. At the same time, science fiction shows from the United States, Russia, China, Japan or Korea are increasingly populating video streaming services such as Netflix or Amazon Prime. Science fiction with political intrigues in their storytelling are becoming a popular sub-genre, too. For All Mankind (Apple TV) shows an alternate history where the Soviets successfully land on the Moon before the United States, making the first space race continue. The Expanse (Amazon Prime) is set in a future where humans have colonised the solar system. The show depicts the conflict between the largest powers in this new astro-political arena: United Nations of Earth and Luna, the Martian Congressional Republic on Mars M, and the Outer Planets Alliance, a loose confederation of the asteroid belt and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. An intriguing but not extremely unrealistic astro-political scenario.

The book clearly has the intention to pick up such momentum. And it does quite well. The front cover is very attractive. The title has wit. The chapters are short (five to ten pages) and easy to read: the ideal structure for public transport commuters or a demographic with short attention spans. The variety of topics and authors make sure that there is something for virtually everyone...