Interplanetary Politics

It is an inevitability that mankind will populate other planets.  This will most likely happen within our lifetime as manned missions to Mars have been proposed, with some intended to land within the next few decades.  It is also an inescapable fact that wherever you are on Earth you are within the remit of a political power.  Even countries which identify themselves as neutral in relation to international conflict are far from being apolitical.  They have their own internal political landscape and divisions.

It has been established through the Antarctic Treaty that the continent of Antarctica would remain free from military activity and is considered to be politically neutral.  However while this may be the case officially, in practice it is far from being apolitical either.  Several countries have made claims to divisions of Antarctica and some of these have been disputed; the Argentine Government for example disputes the British claim - something which will probably sound uncannily familiar.

As we explore new horizons there are questions that need to be answered and one of the most pressing is the issue of political power within these new horizons.  We have failed in many respects to establish international cooperation and worldwide agreement on fairly basic laws; this fact does not bode well for our future if we are to set forth and travel beyond this planet.  The issue of who "owns" what is one that is particularly interesting as a number of people have tried at various times to claim celestial objects for themselves.  The idea of "buying a star" while it may seem romantic at first raises the very real question of whether or not you can actually own it in the first place.  To put a price on this question is quite easy: $50m - that is the amount Dennis Hope is said to have made selling 1 acre plots on the Moon.  While you can sit and debate about whether any of those claims could ever be redeemed it does not change the fact that 50 million dollars has been made from the ambiguity of whether or not you can actually own a celestial object.

These questions can easily be dismissed as unimportant by people who assert that the act of redemption will never happen as people will never be able to travel to the Moon or have the resources on their own to make 1 acre of land habitable.  However the moment mankind sets foot on Mars and establishes a colony the question of who has authority over it will be raised.  However unlikely the scenario, if the colonists were to rebel would we send another mission with military capacity to reclaim the colony and "reclaim the planet", if we did whose name would such a mission even be made in?

The idea that "first come first served" or "finders keepers" should apply and allow whichever nation manages to colonise Mars first be the nation that claims it does not stand up to scrutiny either.  The United States would most likely be the first nation to send a man to Mars by way of NASA's space programme, however if the idea that the first to arrive are the rightful owners is enforced then the majority of the United States population are unlawfully inhabiting a land that does not belong to them under that definition as they were not the first people to inhabit the North American continent.  Likewise there are many other conflicts on Earth that stem from indigeonous populations being pushed aside and in some cases massacred to make way for second or third arrivals to lay claim to that ground.  If we want to embrace that mentality too then there will likely be many wars waged as evermore powerful military forces are sent to Mars in succession by nation after nation that wish to claim it as their own.

While that battlefield may lie across space, back on Earth considerable conflict would likely arise as a result.  Although Antarctica is considered neutral, if one nation were to send a military force to claim it, others would follow suit to defend their claims too.  Humans are by nature territorial, which by virtue of its definition requires that territory to be marked and defined.  Which brings us back to square one - which Political System should govern what lies beyond our planet?