HOSHI: Why Montana? Of all the places the Vulcans could have landed they chose Bozeman, Montana.
T’POL: Humanity’s first warp drive was developed there. It seemed a logical place to begin.
HOSHI: Well, how did they know it wouldn’t alarm other nations? An alien species makes contact with the United States. It could have made a lot of other countries nervous.
T’POL: What’s your point?
HOSHI: It seems to me that we’re going to run into similar problems. We get invited to dinner, and before you know it we’re accused of taking sides in a war.
T’POL: Contacting new worlds always involves unexpected risks. The High Command has very specific protocols regarding planetary conflicts. Eventually, Captain Archer will have to create some directives of his own.
- Star Trek: Enterprise, “Desert Crossing” (2002)
There was once an ethical leadership team project I participated in during grad school and my background studies in conflict resolution came to be my primary strength. Ideally, most universities would offer a program in conflict resolution. There are very few, at least here in U.S.. On a related note, I also believe most universities should offer a program in violence studies. To my knowledge, Australian National University is the only one, last time I checked, at least in the English-speaking world. In this leadership project each member of the team took on different personas and had to argue their position. The central theme was of our project was dealing with child marriage in India. I took on the persona of a representative of Girls Not Brides (an organization everyone should support). With the blessing of my persistence commingled with my conflict resolution training in making it appear that like the opposite side was getting a win out of our resolution, I was successful in persuading practitioners, fathers, and local government officials of working more closely to eradicating child marriage. You may be reading this and thinking laws are already in place in India. Laws, yes. Enforcement, no.
In the event that long-term space travel becomes possible and with the possibility, of a far-future potential, that first contact is made, regardless of whether we are communicating with one species or a wider interspecies collection of cultures, those individuals on that team should be expertly trained in conflict resolution. There is no chance of navigating the politics of bellicose potentiality without well-educated and enforced team building skills in deescalating explosive situations. Now, please do not misunderstand. Conflict resolution is not the same as compromise. That is perhaps the largest misunderstanding. Universal morality is not abandoned just to get an agreement. Nor is sensitivity to localized cultural mores. The goal of conflict resolution is not agreement, but the cessation of conflict and harm. There are many subtle methods of negotiating one’s way through these cavern walls.
As quoted above, Hoshi asks about the potential of other nations becoming highly concerned when Vulcans made first contact in North America. Likewise, if we were to ever make first contact, either on our own out there in deep space, or here on Earth, there is the potential to make enemies of their enemies. It is worth noting that Capt. Archer avoided this pitfall by developing a relationship with the Andorians despite their ongoing conflict with Vulcans. This is just one example of Capt. Archer’s conflict resolution skillset. I advise personal and interested parties to take a closer look at Capt. Archer’s actions throughout Star Trek: Enterprise. Season 3 is a notable exception. Season 3 was the producers attempting to respond to 9/11. Many were not happy with the direction the show went that season. With season 4 things returned to a sense of what Star Trek is about.
All this being said, as of today humans have no business forming relationships with other species (I avoid stating “sentient species” here because despite popular opinion, animals on Earth are most certainly sentient. I’ll just let you catch up on that one.). I have previously argued for an aggressively reformed education program that must come with a decline in the hunger for economic growth, if not outright abolishing currency, that coincides with teaching programs that stabilize violence in societies. This is a first step, and a comprehensive education in conflict resolution would certainly come with that step. First, rid the Earth of violence. Then look to the stars. With this internalized experience of living in and, by then, have grown up on a planet without violence, we will be in a much better position to make positive first contact and address the problems of relational conflict that may come with that meeting.
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