Space Security Index

Space Security 2011
CHAPTER THREE
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Laws, Policies, and Doctrines
This chapter assesses trends and developments related to national and international space
laws, multilateral institutions, national space policies, and military space doctrines.
International space law has gradually expanded to include, inter alia, the 1967 Outer Space
Treaty (OST), the 1968 Astronaut Rescue Agreement, the 1972 Liability Convention, the
1975 Registration Convention, and the 1979 Moon Agreement. These treaties establish the
fundamental right of all states to access space, as well as state responsibility to use space for
peaceful purposes. They also prohibit national appropriation of space and restrict certain
military space activities, such as placing nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction
in outer space.
This chapter also assesses trends and developments related to the multilateral institutions
that address matters related to space activities, such as the United Nations Committee on the
peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), the Conference on Disarmament (CD), and the
UN General Assembly (UNGA). While COPUOS tends to focus on commercial and civil
space issues, the CD primarily addresses military space challenges through its agenda item
on the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS). The ITU addresses matters
related to the allocation of space resources such as orbital slots and radiofrequencies.
The development of national space policies has been conducive to greater transparency
and predictability of space activities insofar as these policies delineate the principles and
objectives of space actors with respect to the access to and use of space. They provide the
context within which national civil, commercial, and military space actors operate. It is
important to note that, despite the ongoing development of military space applications, for
the most part, states continue to emphasize international cooperation and the peaceful uses
of space in their national space policies.
This chapter also examines the relationship between national space policies and military
space programs. Reflecting the fact that space is increasingly being used to support military
operations, some space actors also have designated national military space doctrines that
support the development of military space applications such as navigation, communications,
intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and meteorological capabilities.
Space Security Impact
The existence of international policy instruments to regulate space activities has a direct
impact on space security since they establish key parameters for space activities such as
the right of all countries to access space, prohibitions against the national appropriation
of space and the placement of certain weapons in space, and the obligation to ensure that
space is used for peaceful purposes. International space law can improve space security by
restricting activities that infringe upon the ability of actors to access and use space safely
and sustainably, or that result in space-based threats to national assets in space or on Earth.
When followed, space policy helps promote the predictability and transparency of space
activities among different stakeholders and helps to overcome problems of collective
security. Current national legislation and international space law also play an important
role in establishing the building blocks for the development of a more robust, up-to-date
regulatory regime on space activities that fills the voids and addresses the shortcomings of
the existing space security normative architecture.
Multilateral institutions like the CD and COPUOS play an essential role in space security
by providing a venue to address common challenges related to space activities. Member