The future seems more frightening than it did just a few years ago. What it will look like doesn’t depend solely on Russia and the US, but on a large number of players. By taking stock of what we actually know, what we don’t know, and above all, what options for action are available, we retrieve the feeling that we too have a role to play in our future. Florence Gaub invites readers to make their own foreign policy decisions: Instead of merely being spectators of more or less plausible scenarios, readers can follow different decision-making paths. The book provides insights into possible decision-making processes and imparts a sense of self-determination.

The future is not something that has already been decided; it is something we must all shape together. Florence Gaub has long emphasized this principle. In her view, the fact that we so often forget this and retreat into a passive fatalism is one of the major problems of our time. In “Szenario”, the political scientist therefore casts readers in the role of active shapers of world politics as they move through the book from one episode to the next on the basis of concrete decisions. Whether they come into contact with Russian security experts, space military actors or lobbyists in Brussels is determined interactively. The diversity of readable futures not only brings the book’s form and argument into creative resonance; it also shows, in ever new ways, just how fascinating international politics can be.

Florence Gaub is a political scientist, military strategist, futurologist, and the director of the research department at the NATO Defense College in Rome. Gaub advises governments and international organizations using future scenarios and trend analyses.