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UFOs Exist, That Doesn’t Mean Aliens Do 5

Academic Says UFOs

Exist, But That Doesn't

Mean 'Aliens' Do

Daniel W. Drezner

The term "UFO" automatically triggers derision
in most quarters of polite society.
One of Christopher Buckley's better
satires, "Little Green Men", is premised on a
George F. Will-type pundit thinking that he has
been abducted by aliens, with amusing results.
UFOs have historically been associated with
crackpot ideas like Big Foot or conspiracy
theories involving crop circles.
The obvious reason for this is that the
term "UFO" is usually assumed to be a synonym
for "extraterrestrial life." If you think about it,
this is odd. UFO literally stands for
Department's Advanced Aerospace Threat by getting pilots on record. What is interesting
"unidentified flying object."
Identification Program, which was tasked with about this latest news cycle, however, is that
A UFO is not necessarily an alien from
cataloguing UFOs recorded by military pilots. DoD officials are not behaving as Wendt and
another planet. It is simply a flying object that
DoD officials confirmed its existence. Duvall would predict.
cannot be explained away through conventional
Though this story generated some Indeed, Politico's Bryan Bender reported
means. Because UFOs are usually brought up
justified skepticism, it represented the first time last month that, "The US Navy is drafting new
only to crack jokes, however, they have been
the US government acknowledged the existence guidelines for pilots and other personnel to
dismissed for decades.
of such a program. report encounters with 'unidentified aircraft,' a
One of the gutsiest working paper
Then, there were the reports last significant new step in creating a formal process
presentations I have witnessed was Alexander
November about Oumuamua, "a mysterious, to collect and analyze the unexplained sightings
Wendt and Raymond Duvall presenting a draft
cigar-shaped interstellar object [that] fell - and destigmatize them."
version of "Sovereignty and the UFO."
through our solar system at an extraordinary My Post colleague Deanna Paul
In that paper, eventually published in the
speed," according to New York's Eric Levits. followed up by reporting that "Luis Elizondo, a
journal Political Theory, Wendt and Duvall
Oumuamua's shape and trajectory were former senior intelligence officer, told The Post
argued that state sovereignty as we understand it
unusual enough for some genuine that the new Navy guidelines formalized the
is anthropocentric, or "constituted and organized
astrophysicists to publish a paper suggesting the reporting process, facilitating data-driven
by reference to human beings alone."
possibility that it was an artificial construction analysis while removing the stigma from talking
They argued that the real reason UFOs
relying on a solar sail. about UFOs, calling it 'the single greatest
have been dismissed is because of the existential
`Again, this prompted skeptical reactions, but decision the Navy has made in decades.'"
challenge that they pose for a worldview in
even those skeptics could not completely rule What appears to be happening is that
which human beings are the most
out the possibility that extraterrestrial activity official organs of the state are now
technologically advanced life-forms:
was involved. acknowledging that UFOs exist, even if they are
UFOs have never been systematically
`Then, on Monday, the New York Times came not literally using the term. They are doing so
investigated by science or the state, because it is
out with another story by the same reporters who because enough pilots are reporting UFOs and
assumed to be known that none are
broke the 2017 story: near-air collisions so as to warrant better record-
extraterrestrial. Yet in fact this is not known,
The strange objects, one of them like a keeping.
which makes the UFO taboo puzzling given the
spinning top moving against the wind, appeared They are not saying that these UFOs are
ET possibility.... The puzzle is explained by the
almost daily from the summer of 2014 to March extraterrestrials, but they are trying to
functional imperatives of anthropocentric
2015, high in the skies over the East Coast. Navy destigmatize the reporting of a UFO.
sovereignty, which cannot decide a UFO
pilots reported to their superiors that the objects Still, the very fact that this step has been
exception to anthropocentrism while preserving
had no visible engine or infrared exhaust taken somewhat weakens the Wendt and Duvall
the ability to make such a decision. The UFO
plumes, but that they could reach 30,000 feet thesis. This was always a two-step process: (a)
can be "known" only by not asking what it is.
and hypersonic speeds. Acknowledge that UFOs exist; and (b) Consider
When Wendt and Duvall made this
"These things would be out there all that the UFOs might be ETs.
argument, there were a lot of titters in the
day," said Lt. Ryan Graves, an F/A-18 Super In recent years, the US national security
audience. I chuckled, too. Nonetheless, their
Hornet pilot who has been with the Navy for 10 bureaucracy has met the first criterion. What
paper makes a persuasive case that UFOs
years, and who reported his sightings to the happens to our understanding of the universe if
certainly exist, even if they are not necessarily
Pentagon and Congress. "Keeping an aircraft in great powers meet that second one?
ETs.
the air requires a significant amount of energy.
For them, the key is that no official
With the speeds we observed, 12 hours in the air About the Author:
authority takes seriously the idea that UFOs can
is 11 hours longer than we'd expect.".... Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of
be extraterrestrials. As they note, "considerable
No one in the Defense Department is international politics at the Fletcher School of
work goes into ignoring UFOs, constituting
saying that the objects were extraterrestrial, and Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
them as objects only of ridicule and scorn."
experts emphasize that earthly explanations can
In recent years, however, there has been
generally be found for such incidents.
a subtle shift that poses some interesting XZBN Radio Host
Lieutenant Graves and four other Navy pilots,
questions for their argument. GWILDA WIYAKA
who said in interviews with The New York Times
For one thing, discussion of actual UFOs
that they saw the objects in 2014 and 2015 in Is On A Mission.…
has been the topic of some serious mainstream
training maneuvers from Virginia to Florida off Mission: Evolution Radio Show
media coverage.
the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, make Listen In At www.XZBN.net
There was the December 2017 New York
no assertions of their provenance.
Times story by Helene Cooper, Ralph or Visit Her Show Website at
The Times reporters broke new ground
Blumenthal and Leslie Kean about the Defense www.missionevolution.org.