Sovereignty And The UFO

A recent (2008) serious UAP paper and must read, written by Alexander Wendt (Professor of International Security at the Ohio State University) and Raymond Duvall (Morse-Alumni Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota) and published in Political Theory (Sage, http://ptx.sagepub.com/).

It was the first time (if I’m not mistaken..) that an important political science journal had published an article dealing with the UFO topic. Among others points, the author’s argument is that UFO ignorance is political rather than scientific…

Abstract:

Modern sovereignty is anthropocentric, constituted and organized by reference to human beings alone. Although a metaphysical assumption, anthropocentrism is of immense practical import, enabling modern states to command loyalty and resources from their subjects in pursuit of political projects. It has limits, however, which are brought clearly into view by the authoritative taboo on taking UFOs seriously. UFOs have never been systematically investigated by science or the state, because it is assumed to be known that none are extraterrestrial. Yet in fact this is not known, which makes the UFO taboo puzzling given the ET possibility. Drawing on the work of Giorgio Agamben, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Derrida, the puzzle is explained by the functional imperatives of anthropocentric sovereignty, which cannot decide a UFO exception to anthropocentrism while preserving the ability to make such a decision. The UFO can be “known” only by not asking what it is.

Download PDF document: Sovereignty and the UFO

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