Contest: Can You Write the Next 'Starship Troopers'?

The next phase of the Atlantic Council's ongoing "Art of Future Warfare" project calls for short science-based stories about conflict in space during the final decade of the 21st century. Word count is 2,000 to 4,000 words. Deadline is March 31, 2014. Authors may publish under a pseudonym, but a biography is required.

Best-selling science-fiction writer David Brin will help select the winning entry. Announcement of a winner will be April 20. The writer of the winning entry will be provided travel expenses to attend a May 18 event in the Washington, D.C. area hosted by the Atlantic Council, at which Brin will also be present. The theme of the event will regard conflict in space.

The latest contest solicitation reads, in part:

Discussions about the future of warfare are often limited by the temporal boundaries faced by national security planners. A lucky few world builders are able to range farther than their peers, yet they rarely push out beyond two decades. This contest will go farther yet to consider the future of armed and social conflict in space during the final years of this century. The best stories will be relevant to readers of today—and tomorrow. Jules Verne's "From the Earth to the Moon" was written in 1865, after all.

Beyond Earth is a blank canvas, the ultimate tabula rasa, where even today’s understanding of physics need not apply in the right writer's hands. All can be made anew. Yet in the same way a black and white photograph focuses our attention on living beings in an image devoid of rich color, the off-world realm gives a limitless tableau for mankind’s altruistic ambitions and far fewer places to conceal its baser qualities. This tension between our best and worst is elemental in science fiction because technology is often used as the broker of this duality. From there memorable characters emerge, even if they are not always human.

All entries will be considered for inclusion in the tentatively titled on-line anthology, "War Stories from the Future," scheduled to be published in fall 2015 by the council's Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security.

For more contest details, including writing guidelines and prompts, visit the Art of Future Warfare project page here.