The Ethical Use of Outer Space - Ethical Engineering for International Development and Environmental Sustainability - page 123

amount of money and international cooperation? For example, a 2012 OECD 17
study estimates that the cost of achieving the fi rst six Millennium Development
Goals would cost a little over $120 billion of new resources beyond the current
fl ows of investment, ODA and public spending in the developing world (Stijns et al.
2012 ) - about 2 years worth of world spending on space. We are often told of the
spin-offs associated with space research and development, but these are mostly of a
technological nature and unlikely to help with achieving MDGs. It seems more
likely that focussed research and development on specifi c problems would yield
more useful outcomes and more quickly.
Some space activities can be very benefi cial. For example, governments are rely-
ing on data from Earth observation satellites to forecast and respond to weather
events; to help with mapping and with geological prospecting; to monitor crops,
fi sheries and forests; to provide warnings of solar outbursts that could disrupt power
lines; and to monitor potential human rights violations in war-torn areas. Space has
also become critical for disaster relief. Cospas-Sarsat is an international satellite
system for search and rescue that provides alert and location data to national search-
and-rescue authorities worldwide, without discrimination, independent of country
participation in the management of the programme. Similarly, in 2006 the UN
General Assembly agreed to establish the UN Platform for Space-based Information
for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER).
What is required therefore is the understanding and agreement by all states to
develop their space activities for the benefi t of all. A state's attitude to developing a
policy on outer space is likely to be closely related to, and associated with, its for-
eign policy. Generally, we might think (or hope) that respectable democratic pro-
cesses (if they exist at all) should encourage the pursuit of ethical foreign policies
(at least, it is diffi cult to imagine that they would develop an unethical one), but it is
often argued that a foreign policy (and therefore a space policy) should only be
formulated in a way that allows the pursuit of national self-interests, and therefore
we can only really expect policies 'with an ethical dimension'. The assumption in
this argument is that ethical issues are somehow counter to a 'national interest' and
that this is best served by ensuring the well-being of a controlling elite, who will
then spread their wealth down to others through various paths of business and
patronage. However, a more ethical view would be that what is best for the state
must be what is best for the majority of the population.
Robin Cook famously spoke of formulating 'a foreign policy with an ethical
dimension' in the fi rst weeks of the New Labour government in 1997, and in 2004
Nicholas Wheeler and Tim Dunne examined how far this had been achieved. In
doing so, they argued that an ethical foreign policy could be pragmatic and wouldn't
necessarily involve the sacrifi ce of national interests. They concluded that 'despite
the criticism heaped upon it for proclaiming an ethical foreign policy, the govern-
ment was right to do so' and that 'to protect itself from unreasonable criticism, the
government could do more in terms of setting out the principles underpinning the
17 The OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) is an international eco-
nomic organisation of 34 countries founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world