Tug of War

October 15, 2017

Excepting proprietary technologies, little remains secret about government contractors aggressively competing for the products--ever-evolving--of military and commercial surveillance. No longer must North American taxpayers be convinced of the necessity for spy satellites, supercomputers, and the capitalist engine driving progress. Wills (history, Brooklyn Coll.) writes of how Canada's MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) not only became the country's largest space company, but across its 45-year history has proved vastly influential on neoliberal policies (allied with the United States) that built a global network. Not as well-known is a parallel chronicle: the rationalizations by powerful players and ambitious technicians, enabling them to sweep under the metaphorical rug moral and political implications. The promised "global village" of enlightened consumers benefiting from affordable devices that double as convenient tools for spying still hasn't arrived, and probably never will. Even the most well-intentioned among those enthralled by space exploration seem agreeable to funding by organizations and industries openly damaging the environment and worse. VERDICT A fascinating, incisive study of MDA's and the global surveillance network's historic and continuing role in furthering the imperial objectives of capitalism. With comprehensive end-matter referencing trade journals, government documents, oral history transcripts, and private sources.--William Grabowski, McMechen, WV

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