THE PRIME DIRECTIVE

MAIN DISCUSSION

ALLEGORY FOR OFF-SCREEN 20TH/21ST CENTURY EARTH

By the time of the era of [TNG], the Prime Directive now applies not only to just pre-warp civilisations but also to any culture with whom Starfleet comes into contact. In such situations, the Prime Directive forbids any involvement with a civilisation without the expressed consent or invitation of the lawful leaders of that society, and absolutely forbids any involvement whatsoever in the internal politics of a civilisation. (This assumes that each civilisation has but one clear overall leadership.)

The developed, or at least amended, version of the Prime Directive harks back to the period of the late 20th and 21st centuries on Earth when the same principle was often applied to large-scale political or social problems facing certain Powers and/or facing nations collectively in the form of the United Nations. However, on 20th/21st century Earth, politics (often behind-the-scenes political maneuverings) led to the very inconsistent application of that principle e.g. the massacre of the Kurds by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was merely condemned by the international community with ineffective sanctions; the U.N. took no effective action against the dictator leading not just to the default of non-interference but of worsening the situation since the humanitarian food-for-oil programme put in place to offset sanctions was subverted by the dictator and his officials. But when the stability of oil supplies and sovereignty of an invaded nation (Kuwait) were attacked by the same dictator, international consensus led to military action against him in order to restore the previous status quo (the Gulf War, or as wags might put it, the Gulf War 1992-1992 or even the Gulf War Part 1), and the selfish interests of numerous nations seemed to be in play (due to oil) despite politicians' rhetoric. The Saddam Hussein issue alone which wracked the United Nations of the 20th/21st century gives rise to precisely the questions aired by Picard in [TNG: Pen Pals]: when millions are involved, when does one intervene? - for a natural catastrophe, a medical epidemic, a war, or even to prevent a perceived disaster, or furthermore to prevent a perceived dire military threat? And at one point can one stop intervening and withdraw gracefully? Would to do so imply simply a kind of managed defeat? Or should one continue to intervene since every intervention alters the scenarios? [TNG: Pen Pals] was broadcast long before many of the events leading to the Second Gulf War and Saddam's fall, and the scriptwriters probably did not have particular 20th century situations in mind, yet Picard's questions apply universally.

The allegorical similarity between the United Nations and the United Federation of Planets is inescapable. The UFP was deliberately conceived as having roughly the same number as the members of the United Nations, and the roles are roughly similar too.

The problematic nature of the arguments about whether the 20th/21st century United Nations should intervene or not and if so how far are also experienced by various powers in Star Trek. This is understandable as stories with allegorical elements are a staple of the series: [TOS: A Private Little War], for instance, in which Kirk restores the balance of power after Klingon interference by providing weapons to one side to match those supplied by the Klingons to the other side, is widely interpreted as being an allegory for the Cold War, an interpretation supported by citing reference in the story to that period. A similar arms race serves as the backstory of [TNG: Too Short a Season] in which Admiral Mark Jameson violates the Prime Directive with his weapons-for-hostages deal which helped trigger a prolonged and bloody civil war. When, in [TNG: Redemption], the Klingon Empire experiences a brief civil war, specifically a power struggle between leader and would-be leader, Captain Picard refuses Chancellor Gowron's request for aid on the basis that it is a matter internal to the Klingon Empire despite the fact that Gowron is the legitimate ruler of the Klingon Empire, and even though the Romulans are suspected of supplying weapons to the opposing side. In view of the following later example, we can deduce that Picard's reason for refusing Gowron aid is due to the Prime Directive even though that is not explicitly mentioned. A later instance is when the provisional government of the planet Bajor experiences a power struggle which nearly leads to civil war, Deep Space Nine Commander Benjamin Sisko's superior explicitly cites the Prime Directive, and orders him to evacuate all Starfleet personnel from the station because the situation is considered to be internal to Bajor, despite the knowledge that the Cardassians are supplying weapons to one side in the conflict.