We have to be realistic about military research
It is time to look past our initial reproach.
The knee-jerk reaction to military multinational companies funding 59 academic research projects at York is bound to be one of reproach. In the age of the student as a marching ethical pioneer, the involvement of BAE, the world’s fourth largest arms company who also happened to clinch a £10bn Eurofighter jet deal with Saudi Arabia, can hardly be seen as keeping in line with ethical investment. It’s the consequences that make you question the outcome of military funded research on a broader scale, or to put it metaphorically; there wouldn’t be the atomic bomb without Einstein’s theory of relativity. Crude as this is, if the end result is a weapon, this surely makes the university complicit in international conflict.
Although I’d find it very satisfying, it is in no shape or form this simple. Scientific advancements and the military have always been connected. The Second World War spurred the development of digital computing, the Internet and the mass production of penicillin. Scientific research is fuelled by a certain childish competition for discovery; and war has often acted as the catalyst in this race for national glory through science. Practically all materials science research has some potential in military usage and researchers are often unfairly condemned for creating what can be seen as the blueprints for destruction. Dr Alfred Nobel, the creator of dynamite, was one such attacked scientist, who on reading a premature obituary entitled ‘the merchant of death is dead,’ felt compelled to establish the Nobel Prizes to leave a better legacy.
Now, it’s the international setting that’s important. With constant global economic, intellectual and political contention, it is only to be expected that the UK’s military budget is now the second highest in the world. It’s naive to think that Britain would ever let the quality of its military research drop and allow other countries on the international stage to supersede it. Now I’d be the first person to point out the UK’s shady arms deals, (Saudi Arabia, anyone?) but surely it’s better that we’re at the top than countries like, say, China, which has become Sudan’s largest weapons supplier.
It also shouldn’t be forgotten that a lot of research has either been transferred to or created for the civil field. QinetiQ, one of the companies of the condemned, developed the bulletproof vest, for example, and a research programme to be set up at York is investigating safer landing techniques for civil aircrafts. Such multinationals not only provide financial aid, they give a certain credibility to departments seeking prestige to bolster their research. But there’s something that just doesn’t sit right with BAE. Its political and economic power is formidable, it receives contracts worth more than £1bn from the Ministry of Defence and has been investigated for bribery in no less than seven countries, Saudi Arabia being one, naturally.
So what is of concern is how corrupt military involvement in research can stunt intellectual autonomy and manipulate the academic community. The pressure for universities to maintain their status as leading research-based institutions, means it is often easier for a department such as Electronics to secure funding through the military. The somewhat Orwellian termed ‘Towers of Excellence’ scheme combines eight commercial government bodies and nine academic partners for research into guided weapons, sensors, radar and electronic warfare, which looks worryingly skewed towards military and opposed to civil research. Undoubtedly, there should be a large portion of funding devoted to peace building and environmental issues, in addition to transparency involving government, military and university transactions.
The fact that the government dropped an enquiry into BAE’s acounts of fraud emphasises their allegiance to company’s researching military development over environmental. But the fact is that the military is an ingrained part of a nation state that will want to absorb the greatest minds across the academic fields.
In an ideal world research would be dedicated to finding solutions to the most pressing humanitarian problems we’re facing at the moment, it’s just a great shame it isn’t.
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