Europe's fight for space - a new challenge

Abstract

The present article examines the challenge Europe faces with regard to space exploration. It advances some technical concepts associated with space exploration and key concepts for our understanding of International Relations – particularly Astropolitics - in a milieu that many see as placatory, but where competition and cooperation go hand in hand, and where military and civilian capacities are often blurred.

Indeed, on the one hand space has its specific characteristics – natural resources, artificial resources (for instance, satellites), dimension, and range with regard to the earth – which makes it a target for commercial and military dispute and may lead to inevitable escalating space armament. On the other hand, there is a need for cooperation and agreement to enable the development of extremely complex technology, which requires vast human, material, and financial resources.

Whether associated with military space capacities or civil space capacities, one observes that today’s e dependence on those resources leads to the need to ensure their security. Control of space, the same as with control of sea, land, and air resources, can be vital to guarantee national security, in the first place, and, consequently, international security. How the European Union is doing it, or will be able to do it, is included in the study undertaken in the present essay. To this effect, it is necessary to know Europe’s space capacities, policies and strategies.

The following question is raised at the end of this article: How does Europe’s space exploration interfere with international security?