Month/Year of Graduation

5-2025

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

Department

Political Science

First Advisor

Michelle Black

Abstract

Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), commonly known as UFOs, are notoriously tricky to understand and analyze. The persistent ambiguity surrounding UAPs is not accidental but strategic; by keeping them in a liminal state of explanation, actors construct a geopolitical anomaly that blurs the boundaries between threat, curiosity, and control. Utilizing a Quantum International Relations (QIR) framework pioneered by Alexander Wendt, James Der Derian, and others enables new analytical tools to explain the creation and impact of these strategic anomalies. The social ontological status of UAP (extraterrestrial, fake, interdimensional, secret technology, natural phenomena, etc.) is determined by an entangled network of epistemological sources that cohere and diverge. What is relevant here is that, as opposed to a traditional scientific anomaly, which is data away from the curve that is either to be explained or discarded, UAP functions as a strategic anomaly. They are kept in a Suspended Epistemic Waveform and cannot collapse into a stable category.

Download

Share

COinS