Edited by Carolina Facioni
There is a very special link between Futures Studies and the topic of war. It could perhaps be said that a war generated Futures Studies. Indeed, only at the end of the Second World War it was clear that science could not only be a means to improve the quality of life of human beings, but also the possible instrument of the mankind’s destruction. Before Hiroshima and Nagasaki, wars were, together with famines and plagues, the element that, approximately every 70 years, halved the existing population in the world. Something unacceptable anyway, but which did not imply the total destruction of mankind. The atomic bomb broke this certainty. A new World War had to be avoided. The risks of a Third World War were therefore the engine on which think-tanks, such as the Rand Corporation in the USA, developed. In the meantime, there was the European philosophical and methodological contribution. New investigation techniques were developed aimed at possible futures (for example, scenarios, or the Delphi Method). Indeed, the fear of a World War III created the premises for the birth of a new discipline. Today, more than ever, we cannot forget this historical link. It is important, today, to dedicate issue 18 of Futuri to a theme the journal never dealt with before: war.There is no lack of signs of the possible occurrence of a world conflict in the future. Never before has it made sense to speak of uncertainty. The first part of the issue aims to describe a theatre of war in 2050: who will fight this war, and how; what will be the communication strategies aimed at citizens; at what territorial level will arrive: should we think of a third world war, or to scattered conflicts, similar to those which involve also the “peaceful” Europe?
The second part will deal with peace: what are the possible strategies to prevent a conflict in 2050 that could be disastrous for human history? In this sense, Futures Studies – and anticipation in particular – must be the most powerful antagonist to war – and to all the war’s demographic, economic, social, and cultural implications, and consequences. It is not a novelty: the aphorism of Vegetius “si vis pacem, para bellum” (if you want the peace, prepare the war) is one of the first examples of anticipatory approach in history.
We therefore call for interdisciplinary contributions, characterized by the application of methods typical of Futures Studies, on topics such as:
- Future Conflict Scenarios (horizon 2050)
- Drivers and megatrends of new and future conflicts
- Anticipation strategies in the context of the war
- Possible developments in the international order
- Cyberwarfare and potential metaverse threats
- New weapons systems and the evolution of autonomous weapons
- Futures Studies and Peace Studies
- The Sustainable Development Goals for Peace Promotion
- Militarization of space and dual use of new space technologies
- Technology risk governance and global governance scenarios
Contributions may be submitted in Italian or English. A preliminary abstract – with a length of up to 2000 characters (including spaces) – must be sent by 30 April 2022 to the email address segreteria@futureinstitute.it . Abstracts should be sent using a Word (or compatible digital format) file, without any references to the author. The results of the selection of the abstracts will be announced by 15 May 2022. The final contributions should be between 20,000 and 30,000 characters (including spaces).
Within the text, the author will indicate the bibliographical references using the author-year of publication style. At the end of the text, the bibliography will be written following the examples below:
- Arnaldi S., Poli R. (Eds.), La previsione sociale – Introduzione allo studio dei futuri, Carocci, Rome, 2012.
- Beckert J., Imagined futures: Fictional expectations in the economy, “Theory and Society”, vol. 42 n. 3, 2013.
- Campa R., Un decalogo per la tecnoetica, “Futuri”, 11 maggio 2020: https://www.futurimagazine.it/dossier/un-decalogo-per-la-tecnoetica/
- Fucile G., E rimarrà solo un apriscatole. Cultura del consumo e apocalissi letterarie, in Paura R., Verso F. (Eds), Antropocene. L’umanità come forza geologica, Future Fiction, Rome, 2018.
For literal quotations within the text, low quotation marks («») will be used in Italian texts, while high quotation marks (“”) will be used in English texts.
Papers will be sent using a Word (or compatible digital format) file to the email address segreteria@futureinstitute.it by 31 August 2022, including a short bio-bibliography of the author. Any images should be sent out of text in format .jpeg or .png high resolution. It is necessary to attach an additional document in which the captions and sources of the proposed images will be shown.
The papers will be evaluated by both the Scientific Committee of the journal FUTURI and external referees. Publication is scheduled for November 2022.
