Exopolitics: Discipline of Choice for Public Policy Issues Concerning Extraterrestrial Life

There is growing debate concerning 'exopolitics', which is oriented towards public policy issues concerning extraterrestrial life; and its relationship to UFOlogy, which primarily focuses on evidence concerning unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Supporters of exopolitics largely accept that the existence of extraterrestrial life has been abundantly demonstrated by a vast pool of evidence over the last sixty years provided by eyewitnesses, whistleblowers, scientists, 'experiencers' and leaked government documents. Supporters of exopolitics claim it is now time to focus on public policy aspects of this evidence, rather than maintain a myopic focus on proving to perennial skeptics that UFOs are real and a legitimate focus on scientific study. Indeed, exopolitics supporters believe that much of this skepticism is unwarranted and can be traced to the debunking recommended by the CIA appointed Robertson Panel in 1953. The panel delivered a report, the Durant Report, that recommended debunking the 'flying saucer' phenomenon and the possibility of extraterrestrial life, for national security reasons. The Report stated: "The "debunking" aim would result in reduction in public interest in "flying saucers" which today evokes a strong psychological reaction."

Many individuals are still trying to grasp what exopolitics is all about, and many 'UFOlogists' remain highly critical of exopolitics as an emerging disciplinary approach to public policy issues concerning extraterrestrial life. UFOlogists still have difficulty grasping that exopolitics is the forerunner to a legitimate academic discipline that will soon be established in every major university. Critics of exopolitics often tend to focus on some of the pioneers of exopolitical thought in terms of their methods and ideas, rather than the identifying the merits of a scholarly approach to public policy issues concerning extraterrestrial life.

The present situation is some ways analogous to the 19th century where there was much debate on how to prepare individuals for studying public policy issues for careers in international diplomacy and public office. Historians at the time argued that efforts to establish the discipline of 'political science' was ill founded, since the best preparation for a life dealing with public policy issues was to read historical works by Arnold Toynbee, Herodotus, Thucydides, etc. Well, political science developed anyway as an academic discipline out of the department of history since it fulfilled a functional need. The functional need was to better understand public policy issues and how individuals could be trained to professionally deal with these.

Political science is now the discipline of choice for those wanting to study public policy issues and to be professionally trained to work with these. During the 1860's, political science departments began to emerge in many universities. Similarly, exopolitics will be the discipline of choice for those desiring to study public policy issues associated with extraterrestrial life since it fulfills a functional need. The functional need is to understand how extraterrestrial life impacts on public policy issues, and to professionally train to deal with these. Exopolitics will be first established in departments of political science as a legitimate sub-field as is currently the case with 'international politics', 'foreign policy', 'comparative politics', 'political economy', etc., in many political science departments. Eventually, exopolitics will emerge as a distinct department with an interdisciplinary focus spanning public policy issues relating not only to political science, but to exoscience, exoreligion, exodiplomacy, etc.

Debunkers and Ufologists in general are poor students of history not to have observed how academic disciplines and sub-fields develop to fulfill functional needs. They are remiss in not observing how exopolitics will fill the functional need for the systematic study of public policy issues concerning evidence of extraterrestrial life. The choice of the word 'exopolitics' to represent this nascent academic discipline has long term strategic value due to the functional need it fills. Furthermore, exopolitics is the term of choice to deal with public policy issues like the national security cover up of extraterrestrial life and technologies.

UFOlogy as a field has little academic future since the functional need it serves will quickly be settled once the existence of extraterrestrial life is accepted. The reality of UFOs will be moot once they have been publicly identified as 'extraterrestrial', 'interdimensional' or 'extratemporal' in origin. Those devoted to UFOlogy are missing a great opportunity to contribute to establishing legitimate social science parameters for exopolitical study. Exopolitics is here to stay as the discipline of choice for a new branch of knowledge that will revolutionize academic studies and the world as we know it.

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Michael E. Salla, Ph.D
Kona, Hawaii
11/24/07
www.Exopolitics.Org

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