Imagining futures of war and peace has always been a core concern for the discipline of International Relations (IR). Over the last decade several IR scholars have been inspired by conceptual insights from the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) to examine how these visions are being shaped by the accelerating pace of technological change in fields including Artificial Intelligence (AI), human-enhancement, quantum computing, robotics, directed-energy weapons, hypersonics, space technology, additive manufacturing and ‘clean’ energy. Of particular interest has been the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries which, as first developed by scholars including Sheila Jasanoff and Sang-Hyun Kim,describes how collectively held understandings of (un)desirable futures associated with science and technology are formed, overcome resistance, and gain institutional support to shape policy decisions (Jasanoff & Kim, 2009; Jasanoff, 2015a).

One area of sociotechnical imaginaries research that has remained largely overlooked by IR scholars concerns the contribution science fiction stories make to shaping how audiences understand new technological developments and their impact in the world. We recently started to address this important gap in IR scholarship by co-editing collection of short interventions in the journal Critical Studies on Security (McCarthy, 2026b; Ruppert, 2026; Watts, 2026b; Watts & Depledge, 2026; Zhang, 2026). We were inspired to do so by conversations with policymakers who had directly referenced works of science fiction when discussing their expectations of future war(fare)

We are aware that we are not the first group of IR and Critical Security Studies (CSS) interested in science fiction (Carpenter, 2016; Daniel & Musgrave, 2017; Kiersey & Neumann, 2015; Weldes, 2003). This genre has also received considerable attention within the wider social sciences with some accounts also drawing from the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries (Alonso, 2026; Belsunces, 2025; Tutton, 2021). What made our exchange original was our focus on studying how the stories presented in science fiction may contribute toward (de)stabilising sociotechnical imaginaries of future war. By examining this issue from a range of empirical perspectives, we highlight the continued importance of science fiction as a repository of popular thinking about war at a time of rapid geopolitical, technological, and environmental change. Extending the insights developed in recent studies (Depledge, Santos and Hobson, 2025; Watts, 2026a), we also show the many contributions which the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries can make to the study of future war.

Building on the themes explored in this exchange, this article has four aims. We begin by outlining what distinguishes science fiction from other forms of imaginative storytelling before introducing some of the vast literature on this genre. The second section introduces the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries and outlines how this concept can contribute toward IR scholarship by providing an analytical framework for studying science fiction as a repository of background understandings which various audiences can draw from to imagine the future conduct of war. The final two sections of this article summarise how our collection of interventions contributes to the literature on sociotechnical imaginaries and future war and identify several areas for future research.

Science Fiction and Future War

Works of science fiction are designed to both challenge and entertain their audiences. Whilst the question of how to define this vast genre of imaginative storytelling remains unsettled (Roberts, 2006: 1-36; Weldes, 2003: 8), all works of science fiction involve the depiction of alternative social realities which differ from our lived experiences based on a substantial difference in science and technology. This is underpinned by the process of cognitive estrangement involving a clear break from an audience’s everyday reality (e.g. an “estrangement”), which is caused by a loosely plausible scientific discovery or technology (e.g. “cognition”) (Suvin, 1972). Understood in these terms, science fiction can be distinguished from other forms of imaginative storytelling such as fairytales through the use of a “novum” as a plot device which fundamentally reorganises the universe in which the story is told (Suvin, 1972).

The motifs presented in science fiction have been subject to longstanding debate (Sontag, 1965). Within IR scholarship, the genre has been studied as providing a window into “imagined futures” whose narrative content can tell us a great deal about contemporary concerns and anxieties (Weldes, 2003: 1). The stories told in works of science fiction can provide audiences “synthetic experiences” of imagined worlds that can shape their interpretations and expectations of real-world politics (Daniel & Musgrave, 2017). Science fiction has also been studied as a social resource that different actors can use to shape wider political norms and ideas. Charli Carpenter (2016), for instance, has used the methods of elite interviewing and participant-observation to trace how science fiction references have impacted the global governance debates on autonomous weapon systems, arguing that references to works of science fiction have helped shape the social context in which these technologies are discussed.

The capacity of science fiction to influence collectively held visions of what war is, and how it will be fought in the future, has been widely recognised. Some defence analysts argue that reading science fiction “can nurture the imaginative mindset in the military and national security professional” (Ryan & Finney, 2021). Works in this genre are promoted as helping “inspire divergent thinking about advanced technologies and how to apply them in concert with new ideas and new organizations” (Ryan & Finney, 2021). Consistent with these understandings, science fiction writers have been recently hired by military establishments to help anticipate future technological, geopolitical, and environmental trends (Paccalin, 2023; Pomerleau, 2017).

Reflecting these real-world developments, the use of science fiction as a tool of strategic foresight (Roussie, Adam-Ledunois & Damart, 2024) has received scholarly attention. What has been subject to less debate in IR scholarship, however, has been how works of science fiction that are not expressly........

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