Diplomatic Fictions

Press Releases from Another World

Rewriting Global Power Beyond Money and Lies

Overview

In today’s world, official communications—such as press releases and diplomatic statements—do more than report events; they shape perceptions and influence realities. Diplomatic Fictions is an innovative project by artist and scholar Lanfranco Aceti that challenges these conventional narratives. Through a series of speculative press releases and alternative flag designs, Aceti invites us to envision a world where diplomacy prioritizes transparency, equity, and the collective good over financial and imperial interests.​

Project Highlights

• Alternative Press Releases: Crafted as speculative geopolitical artifacts, these fictional yet plausible statements reimagine global power dynamics, presenting scenarios where diplomacy serves the public interest.​

• Visual Symbolism: Each press release is paired with unique flag designs, reconfiguring national and transnational identities. These visual elements challenge established geopolitical realities and encourage viewers to reconsider the symbols of power.​

Artistic and Intellectual Foundations

Drawing from critical media theory, political philosophy, and contemporary art, Diplomatic Fictions engages with the ideas of thinkers like Noam Chomsky, Hannah Arendt, René Girard, and Jacques Rancière. By blending diplomatic language with artistic subversion, Aceti transforms each press release into both a literary and conceptual artwork, questioning the language and symbols that define global governance.​

Invitation to Reflect

Diplomatic Fictions is more than an artistic critique; it is an invitation to rethink the narratives that shape our understanding of international relations. By presenting alternative realities, Aceti encourages us to question the status quo and imagine a world where diplomacy truly serves the people.​

Author’s Notes

The world as we know it is shaped not just by events but by the words that frame them. Press releases, diplomatic statements, and media narratives are not mere reports; they are instruments of power, tools of obfuscation, and shields for the interests of those who benefit from war, division, and economic exploitation. The world is on fire—not simply because conflicts erupt but because they are managed, funded, and spun by those who dictate what is said, what is omitted, and what is distorted beyond recognition.

This book is an act of defiance against that machinery of deception. Diplomatic Fictions is not a collection of satire, nor is it speculative fiction in the traditional sense. It is a reconstruction of a world that should be, but isn’t. A world where diplomacy serves the people, not the profiteers. A world where press releases reveal truth, rather than cloak it in polished ambiguity.

Each press release in this collection is an alternative reality—a possibility deliberately ignored by governments and institutions. These are statements that should have been issued, paths that should have been taken, and narratives that should have shaped the world differently. But instead, we are given the same tired excuses, the same diversions, the same cynical justifications for war, economic collapse, and human suffering.

In an era of strategic misinformation and performative outrage, this book offers an artistic and intellectual counterweight. It is a refusal to accept the inevitability of deception. It is a declaration that words still matter—and that if we cannot change reality, we can at least write the world anew, without money and lies dictating its course.

This is not escapism; it is an act of war against the narratives that enslave us.

Welcome to Diplomatic Fictions.

ART THROUGH PRESS RELEASES

Washington D.C. and Kyiv, Ukraine—March 1, 2025—12:00 Zelenskyy Announces New Strategy: No NATO, No Repayment to U.S., EU Accession for Russia and Ukraine FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, D.C.—February 28, 2025—16:00 Zelensky Says No to Trump in Washington: “America Will Not Eat Ukraine Alive” FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Brussels, Nuuk, Copenhagen–February 3, 2025—12:00 Greenland Joins the European Union as Its 29th Member State FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ottawa, Brussels–February 2, 2025—12:00 Canada Rejects 51st State Status, Moves Toward Becoming 28th Member of the European Union FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Diplomatic Fictions: Press Releases from AnotherWorld—Rewriting Global Power Beyond Money and Lies is an innovative fusion of political critique, speculative diplomacy, and contemporary art. Conceived as both an intellectual intervention and an artistic project, the book presents a series of alternative press releases, each crafted by Lanfranco Aceti as a speculative geopolitical artifact. These fictional yet plausible statements reimagine global power dynamics, offering scenarios where diplomacy serves transparency, equity, and the public good rather than financial and imperial interests.

Each press release is accompanied by one or more flag designs, expanding the discourse into the realm of visual symbolism. By reconfiguring national and transnational identities through alternative vexillology, these artistic compositions challenge entrenched geopolitical realities and invite the viewer to reconsider the visual lexicon of power. Through this interplay of text and image, Diplomatic Fictions interrogates the role of media, official discourse, and national iconography in perpetuating systemic injustices while simultaneously offering a visionary framework for reimagining international relations.

The project draws from critical media theory, political philosophy, and contemporary art, engaging with thinkers such as Noam Chomsky, Hannah Arendt, René Girard, and Jacques Rancière. By combining diplomatic rhetoric with aesthetic subversion, Aceti transforms each press release into both a literary intervention and a conceptual artwork, positioning Diplomatic Fictions as a radical challenge to the language and symbols that define global governance.

Introduction: The Pain of Being Between a Rock and a Hard Place

History does not remember leaders for their rhetoric alone; it judges them by the outcomes of their choices. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, despite his global acclaim, does not fit the mold of a statesman. A true statesman would have sought a path that prioritized the survival and sovereignty of his nation without succumbing to the machinations of larger geopolitical forces. A statesman would have understood that Ukraine’s geographical and historical position—perched precariously at the border of empires—demanded strategic pragmatism rather than ideological fervor. A statesman would have sought negotiations before war, recognizing that the territorial anxieties of a neighboring superpower, however unjust, would not simply dissolve under the weight of moral arguments. A statesman would have recognized that the entanglement of foreign powers—particularly the role of Britain, the ever-perfidious Albion—was not an expression of solidarity but a calculated geopolitical maneuver.

A different vision for Ukraine was possible. A negotiated settlement securing EU integration while constitutionally guaranteeing neutrality from NATO could have prevented the devastation that followed. A statesman could have pursued an agreement ensuring autonomy for Russian-speaking regions, a diplomatic compromise that acknowledged the nation’s historical complexities. Leasing Crimea to Russia in exchange for a favorable share of Russian gas and oil flowing into the European Union could have offered a pragmatic alternative to protracted conflict. If history has offered any precedent, it is that of Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian president, whose miscalculations in challenging Russian dominance and in relying on American’s support only led to the dismemberment of his country—a lesson seemingly unheeded by Kyiv.

Yet, what is perhaps more tragic than Zelenskyy’s failure to embody statesmanship is the spectacle unfolding today: the Ukrainian president, once hailed as a defender of democracy, now finds himself bullied not by Moscow but by Washington. The calculated indifference of Donald J. Trump and J.D. Vance serves as a cruel reminder that there is no fundamental difference between empires—only variations in their rhetoric and self-justifications. The very illusions that propelled Zelenskyy onto the world stage are now disintegrating before him. The belief that the United States is an unwavering patron of freedom, that Western alliances operate on principles rather than expediency, that the grand narratives of democracy offer protection against the cold arithmetic of power politics—all these illusions now collapse under the weight of political convenience.

This is not a new phenomenon. The United States has long treated its allies as expendable, their usefulness calculated by immediate strategic interests rather than enduring commitments. We saw it in Afghanistan, where those who had risked their lives assisting the U.S. were left behind, abandoned to the Taliban as desperate crowds clung to departing planes, their fate sealed by an empire that had moved on. We see it now in Ukraine, where the slogans of Slava Ukraini fade into silence, replaced by the quiet humiliation of abandonment. America First is not an aberration; it is merely the blunt articulation of an imperial doctrine that has always been defined by self-interest. The intervention in Korea, the attack on Vietnam by the U.S., together with France and Britain, frame a colonial pattern that has been repeated both historically and geographically. A statesman should have studied, known, and understood the nature of both allies and enemies. A statesman would have understood that the EU is an empire, made of old empires, French, German, and British, wielding economic strength and proxy wars as means for control and enlargement.

It is this moment—watching the unraveling of all the illusions, of all the hypocrisies, and all of the lies that Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians believed in that is the saddest moment. The lack of piety, of compassion, of understanding for someone’s pain would have deserved some consideration: after all the Ukrainians dead at the front are not 43,000 as Zelensky has been told to declare, following the U.S. government policy since the Vietnam war of hiding the visuals of the coffins of U.S. soldiers being unloaded from planes.

It is this moment of disillusionment, played in front of the world’s screens, that marks the opening of this book. Diplomatic Fictions is not merely an exercise in speculation, or fake news, but a project of counter-narrative, a rewriting of the political scripts that shape our world. As Ukraine stands at a precipice, one final hope remains: that Zelenskyy, faced with the stark realization of empire’s betrayal, might break away from the path laid before him. That he might reject the terms of his diminishing agency. That he might, at last, reclaim his country’s fate on his own terms. These are the press releases that should be written.

TO BE CONTINUED…

ENDNOTES

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IMAGES

Image Cover: TBA.