Ambassador to the Aliens?

The schools of thought, we have recently discussed include realism, liberalism, and constructivism. When studying these schools of thought their modern application to society today is quite apparent. Recently, the U.N. is is set to appoint Malaysian astrophysicist Mazlan Othman as the world organization's space ambassador for extraterrestrial contact affairs. This recent news article brings up several questions scientists and citizens alike have concerning about the United Nations affairs. Could it be that U.N. officials know something that we don't know? Othman was quoted as telling scientists during a recent talk that the search for alien signals "sustains the hope that someday humankind will receive signals from extraterrestrials." If contact is made, "we should have in place a coordinated response that takes into account all the sensitivities related to the subject," she said. "The U.N. is a ready-made mechanism for such coordination." This issue of an alien ambassador appointment carries with it some of the underlying assumptions and values of the constructivist theory of International Relations.

What would cause the U.N. to have the desire to make such an appointment? According to Wendt, a constructivist would view this appointment as an attempt to lead members of the U.N. to redefine its interests and identities in the process foreseeing an open future. This potential open future of communication would have such an ambassador learn about communication with outside forces for increased protection of the global interests if such aliens were to manifest themselves. Thus, unlike rationalist theories such as neorealism and neoliberalism which hold interest and identities constant in order to isolate the causal roles of power and international institutions, constructivism considers how structures shape the very way actors define themselves--who they are, their goals, and the roles they believe they should play.Social constructivist scholars view learning as an active process where learners should be encouraged to discover principles, concepts and facts for themselves. Therefore, a social constructivist would specifically view the alien ambassador appointment as an attempt to become immersed within a culture of this sort- where one is learning all the time about how to interact with a part of that culture on many levels through communication.

It is interesting to look at the United Nations methodology regarding this appointment because there is already an international group designated to address the issue of potential alien contact. The SETI Post-Detection Task Groups is charged with developing a protocol for dealing with the discovery of signals or other evidence of the existence of an extraterrestrial civilization. This formation of an ambassador to handle the potential circumstance regarding how future extraterrestrial visitors should be greeted would be viewed by a constructivist as a mechanism to highlight the U.N. or our world’s dominance as a supreme territory. Acting as “greeter” to the aliens (as the ambassador’s prominent role would essentially be in the constructivist viewpoint) a way to manage the balance of power and encourage peaceful interaction during the initial communication.

When examining this rather outrageous and spontaneous declaration by the U.N., it is important that present day IR theorists recognize the constructivist attempts of learning and communication with other states (or in this case extra-terrestrials visitors) to better understand that the world is always developing and changing. Professor Stephen Hawking said “he imagined they (the aliens) might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. The outcome for us would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.” Perhaps, the U.N. really does know something we do not know with the sudden interest in appointing an alien ambassador.

Sources:

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com

http://www.space.com/news/united-nations-alien-ambassador-100927.html