To Boldly Go: Leadership, Strategy, and Conflict in the 21st Century and Beyond

A multi-author exploration of leadership and strategy through the lens of classic science fiction.

The literature of ideas. When author Pamela Sargent used those words to describe science fiction in 1975, the genre had exploded into the literary mainstream. As a literature of ideas, science fiction has proven to be a powerful metaphor for the world around us, offering a rich tapestry of imagination through which to explore how we lead, how we think, and how we interact. To Boldly Go assembles more than thirty writers from around the world—experts in leadership and strategy, senior policy advisors and analysts, professional educators and innovators, experienced storytellers, and ground-level military leaders—to help us better understand ourselves through the lens of science fiction.

Each chapter of To Boldly Go draws out the lessons that we can learn from science fiction, drawing on classic examples of the genre in ways that are equally relatable and entertaining. A chapter on the burdens of leadership by Ghost Fleet author August Cole launches readers into the cosmos with Captain Avatar aboard the space battleship Yamato. In another chapter, the climactic Battle of the Mutara Nebula from The Wrath of Khan weighs the advantages of experience over intelligence in the pursuit of strategy. What does inter-species conflict in science fiction tell us about our perspectives on social Darwinism? Whether using Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to explore the nuances of maritime strategy or The Expanseto better understand the threat posed by depleted natural resources, To Boldly Go provides thoughtful essays on relevant subjects that will appeal to business leaders, military professionals, and fans of science fiction alike.

Table of Contents

Foreword—Major General Mick Ryan

PART I: THE CAPTAIN’S HAND
1 Space Battleship Yamato and the Burden of Command—August Cole
2 Of X-Wings and Y-Wings—Kera Rolsen
3 Adama’s Unequal Dialogue—Mick Cook
4 Earth Must Come First!—Jo Brick
5 You’re Not Ender Wiggins, and That’s Okay—Will Meddings
6 Princess Leia and the Strategic Art of Métis—Heather S. Gregg
7 Want to Know More?—Jess Ward

PART II: THE FINAL FRONTIER
8 Yours is the Superior—Jonathan Klug and Steven Leonard
9 The Empire’s New Hope—James Groves
10 Graff’s Game—Thomas Bruscino
11 From Tactics to Galactic Grand Strategy—Major General Mick Ryan
12 Where No Port Has Gone Before—Timothy Choi
13 Sun Tzu, Ender, and the Old Man—Kathleen J. McInnis

PART III: THE PRIME DIRECTIVE
14 All That You Touch You Change—Jacqueline E. Whitt
15 Romulans and Remans—Max Brooks
16 Are We Such Apostles of Mercy?—Janeen Webb
17 Beware the Beast Man–Steven Leonard
18 Flag Follows Trade—Theresa Hitchens
19 The Vice Admiral and the Flyboy–Kelsey Cipolla
20 I Exist Only to Serve—Julie M. Still and Kelly A. Lelito

PART IV: THE WAR OF THE WORLDS
21 One Voice in the Night—Clara Engle
22 There’s No Screaming in Space—Jon Niccum
23 The Final Frontier—Erica Iverson
24 Blood Lessons—M. L. Cavanaugh
25 You Rebel Scum!—Jonathan Klug
26 Calm Men Who Deal Death Wholesale—Rebecca Jensen

PART V: THE RISE OF THE MACHINES
27 We Don’t Serve Their Kind Here—Margarita Konaev
28 Things We Learned from Captain Trips—Craig and Steve Whiteside
29 Musings on the Murderbot—Elsa B. Kania
30 Man > Machine—Liam Collins
31 You Can’t Hide From the Things You’ve Done—Francis J. H. Park

PART VI: THE DARK SIDE
32 The Mark of Locutus—David Calder
33 From Darth Vader to Dark Helmet—Dan Ward
34 To Live and Die at My Command—Jonathan Klug
35 The Mirror Crack’d—Steven Leonard