Some Implications of Outer Space Problems

• Date: 01 September 1958
• Author: Linden A. Mander
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295801100319
• Published date: 01 September 1958
• Subject Matter: Articles

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economic standards and the promise of greater individual liberties. All of
these, they assert, can minimize nationalism and encourage a democratic
climate in Western Europe.
Other observers, however, reply that supranationalism may introduce
excessive stresses in European society. They assert that it is NATO which
actually protects European democracy, that democracy is not necessarily
enhanced by the creation of larger political units, and that all the resulting
economic consequences are not inevitably welcome. Some also see selfish
interests, such as Clerical parties and German industry, as the principal
beneficiaries of Western European integration.
There is disagreement as to whether the Western European states can
successfully adjust to the necessities of supranational organization. Too
much national economic flexibility cannot be expected so long as only some
economic factors, but not others, are subjected to control. Political adapta-
tion could be less difficult to achieve, but the insufficiency of popular support
for the idea makes further integration uncertain. It is not yet clear, finally,
that the powers taken from national governments by the new organizations
are actually exercisable by supranational authority. More likely, if a new
supranational level of democratic government is to emerge in Western
Europe, it must come from increasingly strengthened democratic institutions
below.
SOME IMPLICATIONS OF OUTER SPACE PROBLEMS
LINDEN A. MANDER*
We
may analyze problems of outer space from four viewpoints - legal,
politico-military, scientific, and philosophic. Legal questions which arise
include:
1. How far, if at all, do the international agreements signed at Paris in
1919 and Chicago in 1944 afford grounds for the assertion of national
sovereignty over outer space? The majority of experts would appear to
agree that, since the agreements refer to atmospheric space, they cannot be
stretched to include outer space.
2. Can national sovereignty be made...