Speculative fiction - A tool for rethinking U.S. policy on Korea?

Speculative fiction is more than storytelling. It’s strategic imagination in its sharpest form.

Read about Korea policy for more than ten minutes and you’re head explodes in a cloud of tedious talking points, over-technical documents, and dense strategy papers that have not changed for 30 years. If the goal is to craft better policy, then traditional methods are no longer enough. It is time to embrace a sharper tool: speculative fiction.

Speculative fiction is a broad literary genre that encompasses works that imagine worlds, scenarios, or outcomes that differ significantly from reality, often through elements of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, or the distant future. It explores “what if” questions by speculating on technological advancements, societal transformations, or metaphysical ideas, allowing authors to critique the present, explore philosophical concepts, or construct entirely new realities.

Rather than adhering strictly to …