The Atlantic Council's latest hire has been a key strategist for several wars -- all fought on gaming consoles and computer screens.
Until recently, Dave Anthony was a director and writer for Call of Duty, one of the biggest video game franchises ever. Known for its realistic graphics and plots inspired by real-world events, the series has sold well over 100 million copies and generated billions of dollars in revenue. Anthony managed a development team and budget on the scale of a Hollywood blockbuster.
That's not the typical resume for an Atlantic Council fellow. The centrist think tank, which was founded in the 1960s with a focus on NATO and now works on a broad range of international issues, in many ways represents Washington's classic foreign policy establishment. Past and present affiliates include Henry Kissinger and Condoleezza Rice, Chuck Hagel, and other Obama cabinet members.
How did a game director come to join a think tank? Interestingly, the article notes that Mr. Anthony was approached by Atlantic Council. Mr. Anthony was a panelists at an Atlantic Council event held earlier this year on the future of war.
The article notes that the Atlantic Council hopes it can draw on Mr. Anthony's "experience waging fictional war to bring a new, creative approach to predicting global threats."
Here is the Atlantic Council press release about the think tanks' unique hire. It notes that he will be a Nonresident Fellow in the think tank's Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, and will contribute to the "Art of Future Warfare" project, which mines narrative fiction and interactive media for real-world insights into the future of conflict.
Mr. Anthony will speak at the Atlantic Council on October 1 in an on-the-record event titled "The Future of Unknown Conflict." Today, Mr. Anthony said that he finally got a "real job."
Here is what Russia's RT had to say about the hire.