Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

406 reMeMBerINg the SpaCe age
the panel was also asked to consider whether space activity fostered a
new global identity, or reinforced distinct national identities. here I think a
two-handed response is unavoidable. On the one hand, nations do take pride
in being able to demonstrate to everyone that they, too, can launch and sustain
space missions, including human missions. along with this we have the national
security implications—not only for the United States, but for everyone else—of
being able to deliver catastrophic weapons to adversaries’ soil and military assets
wherever they might be. the same can be said for nations’ ability to spy on each
other continuously from space and to use satellites for tactical advantages in the
feld with space-based surveillance and targeting.
has the ability to amplify national military capabilities in space, one of
the most visible manifestations of national technological capacity, strengthened
nationalism? We tend to assume it has, but I think that notion is debatable. We
might recall the premise, built into president eisenhower’s space policy and
illustrated in the case of the Soviet Union, that international belligerence is less
sustainable when nations can accurately assess one another’s military capacities.
So we can debate whether the enhancement of military capabilities by space
weaponry, reconnaissance, and targeting actually fosters nationalism or simply
elevates the geopolitical balance of powers to a higher plane.
and now, to the other hand: Our ability to observe earth from space
has unquestionably reinforced our understanding that earth is a solitary
and probably unique traveler through space, its natural plenitude the single
greatest treasure bequeathed to humankind, whether by a divine creator or the
mysterious “fckle fnger of fate.” But the indirect contribution to globalization
may be more important than this more obvious visual paradigm.
to begin with, earth imagery from space has brought to fruition the
historic process of global discovery that began in earnest during that previous
“age of reconnaissance” of the 14th and 15th centuries. Secondly, by engaging
scientists from around the world in the shared investigation of earth’s dynamic
climate and physical geography, as well as the relationship of its dynamic
processes to those of the Sun, space activity has reinforced the cosmopolitanism
of intellectual life—an essential component of genuine “globalization.”
I believe that the contribution of space activity to globalization has
been far greater than its contribution to nationalism. Indeed, space travel has
been largely a product of nationalism, rather than one of its sources. and I
believe that a symbiotic relationship between space activity and globalization
will prevail over whatever uses individual nations may wish to make of their
ability to operate in space. this is because the nation state is being overtaken
by the globally invested corporation as the primary means of aggregating
economic and allied political interests. Moreover, thanks to now ubiquitous
“outsourcing,” the functions of government are increasingly carried out by
corporations wielding enough fnancial power to buy favorable, or at least
neutral, government policies.