Art of video games may influence art of war with new project

A new program from the U.S.-based think tank Atlantic Council is looking towards video games in order to inform what real war might look like in the future. The organization’s “Art of Future Warfare” project “mines narrative fiction and interactive media for real-world insights into the future of conflict.” As part of the initiative, Atlantic Council added Call of Duty writer and director Dave Anthony as a nonresident fellow in its Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security. The idea behind the project is to shake up the perception of war among those ingrained in the real-life defense industry by bringing artists from the outside who have their own unique visions of future warfare. Anthony told The Washington Post, “My focus is on what we can do, and what we are not thinking about in terms of how we can be proactive about preparing for [future conflicts], or even preventing them from happening.” The next Call of Duty, November's Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, places particular emphasis on the future of war, and is developed by Activision-owned Sledgehammer Games.