Significant recent scholarship has addressed the apparently accelerating proliferation of antisatellite (ASAT) weapons in the international system by proposing the development of new institutions or ...instruments for arms control in space. However, the historical record is not encouraging for this approach, as the last 40 years have seen repeated, failed attempts to do just that. How might it be possible to surmount this evident resistance to developing an arms-control regime for space? This article advances the argument that rather than attempting to create new mechanisms for controlling ASATs, the most profitable path forward may be to reframe kinetic space weapons as strategic weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). It presents a typological framework for the classification of WMDs, and situates kinetic ASATs within this rubric. It then discusses how reframing kinetic ASATs as WMDs could provide for the effective control of such weapons by rendering them subject to existing treaty and normative frameworks, thus avoiding the need for new agreements or institutions. Finally, it discusses some of the limitations and potential consequences of this approach.
Robust space development as usually envisioned by its advocates—the persistent and self-sustaining presence of humans and industry in space—is stymied by a fundamental paradox: for there to be a ...reason to develop space, there must already be people and industry there. To the extent that space development is a priority for any government or entity, this paradox must be surmounted. Space-based solar power (SBSP) production may represent the best way to overcome this paradox because of the technology's inherent scalability, rising demand for terrestrial clean baseload energy, and potential for self-funding. However, technical, regulatory, legal (domestic and international), and geopolitical challenges to deploying this technology on a large scale remain. In this article, the authors describe how SBSP development can potentially overcome the development paradox and offer an analysis of the challenges to this concept and potential approaches to resolving them. Furthermore, they provide a tentative research and commercialization roadmap for a private-public partnership for SBSP to deliver sustainable space development, identifying relative advantages and disadvantages.
Space-based solar power is a system for delivering a potentially limitless supply of clean energy to a world desperately searching for alternatives to fossil fuels. However, while the system offers ...the promise of unlimited, "green" electrical power, it also has immense potential as a geopolitical tool. For example, this new power source could be used to support troops, rebels, or international aid workers virtually anywhere in the world. Space solar power research has recently experienced something of a renaissance, but so far there has been very little discussion about the security implications of this potentially transformative technology. While it will be at least a decade, if not two, before the infrastructure for deploying a full-scale system exists, developing policies and norms-international and national-capable of effectively engaging such a technically and politically complex issue can itself require years of work. Policy makers and political scientists should begin debating the security impacts of space-based solar power now, lest technological development outpace the ability of governments and international institutions to meaningfully assimilate it.
For four decades, states have initiated efforts to negotiate comprehensive security norms for outer space, but all of these efforts have ultimately failed, while other attempts to manage the security ...of the global commons have not. To answer the question of why this is the case, the author adapts a model for international negotiation, and applies it to three test cases relevant to the security of the global commons. The author finds that states attempting to persuade others to adopt a new security norm will succeed only if they possess both superior information and credibility as negotiators.
