On July 23, Foreign Policy published a biweekly column featuring Scowcroft Center deputy director Matthew Kroenig and New American Engagement Initiative senior fellow Emma Ashford discussing the latest news in international affairs.
In this column, they discuss the future commercialization and militarization of space, calling for cooperation and international standards to help guide future space exploration and technology development. They further considered the exportation of the Israeli surveillance software Pegasus to authoritarian leaders and its implications; China’s state-sponsored hacking and the need to bolster U.S. cyber defense capabilities; and the prospect of providing internet access to protesting Cubans.
Commercializing space will require securing space, and China and Russia present some of the biggest threats in that domain…So, making this work will require the US and its allies to extend their terrestrial military advantages to outer space. Washington needs to invest in military capabilities to deter and defend against hostile adversary attacks.
What we need is a concerted attempt to build a regime of norms around interactions in space. That could take the form of something as complex as an arms control treaty or something as simple as a space-based version of the notification and free-transit rules we have for international waters.
