Earlier this year, I published a short story, OMEGA, co-written with Amir Husain, CEO and founder at SparkCognition. The narrative explores the nature of strategic surprise in the AI era, and how the US, as well as its European allies, might respond to such an upset in Europe. Exploring setbacks and failure is just one way such FICINT writing can help.

“Incoming!” shouted Piotr Nowak, a master sergeant in Poland’s Jednostka Wojskowa Komandosów special operations unit. Dropping to the ground,...