Tug of War : Surveillance Capitalism, Military Contracting, and the Rise of the Security State

Lifting the veil on a corporate world girded by powerful forces at the nexus of state, capital, and geopolitical power games. Lifting the veil on a corporate world girded by powerful forces at the nexus of state, capital, and geopolitical power games. Selling Earth observation satellites on their abilities to predict and limit adverse environmental change, politicians, business leaders, the media, and technology enthusiasts have spent sixty years arguing that space exploration can create a more peaceful, prosperous world. Capitalist states have also socialized the risk and privatized the profits of the commercial space industry by convincing taxpayers to fund surveillance technologies as necessary components of sovereignty, freedom, and democracy. Jocelyn Wills's Tug of War reminds us that colonizing the cosmos has not only accelerated the arms race but also encouraged government contractors to compete for the military and commercial spoils of surveillance. Although Canadians prefer to celebrate their role as purveyors of peaceful space applications, Canada has played a pivotal part in the expansion of neoliberal policies and surveillance networks that now encircle the globe, primarily as a political ally of the United States and component supplier for its military-industrial complex. Tracing the forty-five-year history of Canada's largest space company – MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) – through the lens of surveillance studies and a trove of oral history transcripts, government documents, trade journals, and other sources, Wills places capitalism's imperial ambitions squarely at the centre of Canada-US relations and the privatization of the Canadian political economy. Tug of War confronts the mythic lure of technological progress and the ways in which those who profess little interest in war rationalize their leap into military contracting by avoiding the moral and political implications of their work. Cover TUG OF WAR Title Copyright Dedication Contents Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction: Satellites and Surveillance Capitalism 1 “A Permanent State of ‘Cold War’”: Preparing the Environment, 1940–1968 PART ONE THE TECHNOLOGY ENTHUSIASTS 2 “Our Knowledge Is in the Holes”: Software Consulting and the Sweat-Equity Formula, 1968–1977 3 “Innovation in a Cold Climate”: Remote Sensing and the Government Contracting Paradigm, 1971–1980 4 “Two Things Went Wrong at Once”: Financial Crises, Mythical Man-Months, and the Near-Death Experience, 1975–1981 PART TWO THE INVESTOR-BUSINESS STRATEGISTS 5 “Unscrambling the Mess”: Financial Restructuring, Management Discipline, and the Military Contracting Formula, 1981–1987 6 “The Systems Vision Was Too Hard”: Investor Strategies, Product Development, and the Demise of the Manufacturing Vision, 1982–1988 7 “One Amorphous Mass”: Systems Integration, Strategic Planning, and the Search for Liquidity, 1988–1993 PART THREE THE SYSTEMS INTEGRATORS 8 “This Company Will Be Sold”: MDA’s Public Offering, Orbital’s Acquisition, and the Dot-Com Bust, 1993–2001 9 “Shades of Grey”: 11 September 2001, the Homeland Security Bubble, and Canada’s Sovereignty Imbroglio, 2001–2008 10 “A Lucky Escape”: The Great Recession, Property Information Divestment, and the Acquisition of a Critical Mass in Satellite Manufacturing, 2009–2012 Conclusion: “Unseen, in the Background”: A View from the Security State Notes Bibliography Index