{"id":3092,"date":"2018-01-05T18:24:02","date_gmt":"2018-01-05T18:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/intergalacticbar.org\/?p=3092"},"modified":"2021-10-05T18:25:03","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T18:25:03","slug":"the-militarization-of-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intergalacticbar.org\/2018\/01\/05\/the-militarization-of-space\/","title":{"rendered":"The Militarization of Space"},"content":{"rendered":"

Regular readers may recognize a recurring theme of the Captain’s Blog in examining the ways that nations have abandoned and continue to depart from the spirit, if not the letter, of the foundational Outer Space Treaty of 1967.\u00a0 While\u00a0other international treaties<\/a>, notably the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963 prohibiting nuclear tests and explosions in outer space, may provide some governance or guidance, the Outer Space Treaty is the principal international law that requires the peaceful use of space by nation states.\u00a0 The\u00a0Outer Space Treaty of 1967<\/a>\u00a0requires that the use of outer space be “for the benefit and in the interests of all countries” and “in the interest of maintaining international peace and security and promoting international co-operation and understanding,” and it additionally broadly prohibits the weaponization of outer space.\u00a0 Article IV of the Outer Space Treaty states:<\/p>\n

States Parties to the Treaty\u00a0undertake not to place in orbit around the Earth any objects carrying nuclear\u00a0weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction, install such weapons on celestial bodies,\u00a0or station weapons\u00a0in outer space in any other manner<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Moon and other celestial bodies\u00a0shall be used by all States Parties to the Treaty exclusively for peaceful\u00a0purposes. \u00a0The establishment of military\u00a0bases, installations and fortifications, the testing of any type of weapons and\u00a0the conduct of military manoeuvres on celestial bodies shall be forbidden. \u00a0The use of military personnel for scientific\u00a0research or for any other peaceful purposes shall not be prohibited. \u00a0The use of any equipment or facility\u00a0necessary for peaceful exploration of the Moon and other celestial bodies shall\u00a0also not be prohibited.<\/p>\n

While there could be some academic value to\u00a0splitting hairs\u00a0in defining\u00a0space weapons<\/a>\u00a0and the weaponization of space, such pursuits seem to be\u00a0driven towards weakening the interpretation of the text of the Outer Space\u00a0Treaty. \u00a0The simple fact is that the\u00a0Outer Space Treaty, both by its letter but more importantly by its spirit, requires\u00a0the peaceful use of space. \u00a0Now that the\u00a0reality of the pragmatic use of space approaches, nations are discarding their\u00a0peaceful aspirations for what they would no doubt argue is a more realistic\u00a0approach to the weaponization of space. \u00a0The
\nauthor seeks not to judge whether this particular development is positive or\u00a0negative, but to encourage the reader to consider the implications both to\u00a0international law – treaties – and to space law.<\/p>\n

The United States military has become particularly vocal\u00a0about its intentions to turn outer space into a battlefield. \u00a0A draft of the National Defense Authorization\u00a0Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2018 classified outer space as a “combat domain,”\u00a0which is commonly known as a battlefield.\u00a0\u00a0The NDAA became law –\u00a0Public\u00a0Law No. 115-91<\/a>\u00a0– on December 12, 2017, without a section that had been in\u00a0an earlier version of the 2018 NDAA that\u00a0caught\u00a0the attention of news agencies<\/a>\u00a0and apparently stated:<\/p>\n

It is the policy of the United States to develop, produce, field, and maintain an integrated system\u00a0of assets in response to the increasingly contested nature of the space\u00a0operating domain to [among other things] deter or deny an attack on\u00a0capabilities at every level of orbit in space, [as well as to] defend the\u00a0territory of the United States, its allies, and its deployed forces across all operating domains.<\/p>\n

The\u00a02018\u00a0NDAA, as passed, instead required the Department of Defense to develop a plan<\/a>\u00a0to establish a separate military department responsible for the national security\u00a0space activities of the DoD within 45 days, including recommendations for\u00a0legislative language. \u00a0We can thus expect\u00a0to see a detailed legislative mandate for the militarization of space later\u00a0this year. \u00a0As the Secretary of the US\u00a0Air Force, Heather A. Wilson recently said, “We are moving forward with\u00a0modernization in space, so we\u2019re increasing our lethality in all of our areas\u00a0of endeavor. And we are shifting to space as a\u00a0warfighting\u00a0domain<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of one’s personal stance on the\u00a0militarization of space, it should be clear that it is an inevitable future\u00a0unless something radical changes. \u00a0There\u00a0are opportunities for space lawyers in setting the parameters of international\u00a0law and future treaties, in negotiating contracts for the various components of\u00a0moving materiel into outer space, and in pursuing the inevitable claims arising\u00a0from the militarization of space, among many other opportunities. \u00a0The future possibilities are endless for space\u00a0lawyers. \u00a0Join the Intergalactic Bar\u00a0Association and prepare yourself for the future of law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Regular readers may recognize a recurring theme of the Captain’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intergalacticbar.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3092"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intergalacticbar.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intergalacticbar.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intergalacticbar.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intergalacticbar.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3092"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/intergalacticbar.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3094,"href":"https:\/\/intergalacticbar.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3092\/revisions\/3094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intergalacticbar.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intergalacticbar.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intergalacticbar.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}