Star Trek and Foreign Policy

Author’s Note: To understand me to a point is to understand some of my interest areas. Among my research topics in college was analyzing Star Trek for cultural references. The following is a fragment from my senior thesis on how the series changed based upon the time period. As one will notice, it does not follow thesis of the paper therefore was canned.

To bring Star Trek’s ethics into modern times, there is the issue of foreign policy. America has become a country that is very involved in country building. It has become a practice to replace an unhelpful power with one who might be offer more friendly relations to the United States. This is where the Prime Directive might provide some guidance to those that write Foreign Policy and influence the way mainstream America should think about looking the way we view countries that seem alien in comparison to our democracy.

The Prime Directive says the following:

As the right of each sentient species to live in accordance with its normal cultural evolution is considered sacred, no Star Fleet personnel may interfere with the healthy development of alien life and culture. Such interference includes the introduction of superior knowledge, strength, or technology to a world whose society is incapable of handling such advantages wisely. Star Fleet personnel may not violate this Prime Directive, even to save their lives and/or their ship unless they are acting to right an earlier violation or an accidental contamination of said culture. This directive takes precedence over any and all other considerations, and carries with it the highest moral obligation. (Gray)

In short, the directive basically says that no officer should interfere with the development of another culture. This causes some friction in the Star Trek world as it probably would this one if it were consistently applied. Even the captains of the Enterprise see different meanings in those worlds and the Federation itself has amended it. In most cases, the directive has come to mean that members of the federation may not impart knowledge of advanced technology or interfere in the affairs of an alien culture unless prompted by some situation that affects the wellbeing of the Federation. The directive is rescinded in cases where the said species has accomplished warp drive capabilities.

A line of comparison can be drawn in the way America approaches foreign policy. If a country is not democratic and has nuclear capabilities, they are handled differently than another country that might be democratic and has nuclear weapons. There is also the issue of if a country has a resource the United States needs or wants, ex oil. The result is that America provides a certain amount of coercion to make countries do and think, as it would prefer them to.

An argument may be made that is this sometimes a wrong approach. What Americans seem to forget is that our democracy was no forged overnight, it developed over hundreds of years. What became the “American democracy” was created by a group of men who came together and decided that this particular system of government would suit the new nation the best. The founding fathers experimented with the Articles of Confederation before coming to the conclusion that a three branch system with executive, bicameral legislature and court system would come to serve the United States according to its unique needs.

Sometimes it may be forgotten that the countries of the Middle East are examples of what happens when the Prime Directive is not followed. Those countries were colonies under democracies such as Britain and France. It was very possible that had the conflicts between Communist Russia and America not happened, the path these countries took could have been very different. But rather than letting these countries develop their own systems of government, both America and Russia decided to step in so they could create countries in their own images. Instead of allowing the citizens to install their own leader, they were given dictators supported with technology and weaponry gifted by the United States or Russia.

Today, America finds itself fixing the errors of old but are they really? The delegations sent over to the Mideast is creating a parliamentary democracy but is that something that these people really want? One could properly argue that as ancient tribes these people should be allowed to form natural alignments that would serve their needs better. But there is the issue of oil for the West. If the government formed is not friendly to the West and serve its needs properly, this process of overthrowing it could happen all over again. It is a dangerous trend that is a forming a pattern throughout that region. It does fall to this country here and now to stop it.