Memo #154
By Saadia M. Pekkanen – smp1 [at] uw.edu
In 2011, the United States Secretary of Defense and the Director of National Intelligence called global attention to the congested, contested, and competitive nature of outer space activities. All space powers, including in Asia, continue to struggle with the safety and security of assets that undergird their modern economies, militaries, and societies. The practical issue is how to achieve national objectives, some of which are only possible in collaboration with others.
One promising avenue is Europe’s draft Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities. Revised in 2010, it speaks to global concerns about safety, security, and predictability. Though still watchful about its national space capabilities, the US recently pronounced the EU code a promising basis for an international one, particularly related to risks of orbital debris and non-transparency.
Miffed at being left out of the rule-setting process of the EU code, India, for one, needs to be taken far more seriously in designing global rules in the future. China, for another, is reported to oppose a focus on orbital debris, and so possibly any limitations on its military space activities.
For the US, there is a clear opportunity to shape collaboration with Japan, its foremost Asian ally. Japan has significant and increasingly explicit military space capabilities. Its 2008 Basic Space Law also aligns the interpretation of “peaceful uses” of outer space with international understandings (non-aggressive but not non-military). Japan is interested in a global code, but more immediately with US-Japan bilateral cooperation.
The 2011 Joint Statement of the US-Japan Security Consultative Committee, for example, forcefully highlighted concerns with the high seas, cyberspace, and outer space. Following on, President Obama and Prime Minister Noda are expected to declare a “new order” in the Asia Pacific region. This will help expand their strategic partnership to the fields of cyberspace and outer space in which they intend to cooperate in establishing international rules.
The US-Japan efforts are a promising bilateral basis for cooperation. How and whether they actually build up to global multilateral efforts at governing the responsible and peaceful uses of outer space remains to be seen.
About the Author:
Saadia M. Pekkanen – Job and Gertrud Tamaki Professor, Jackson School of International Studies; Adjunct Professor of Law; and Adjunct Professor of Political Science, at the University of Washington.
Links:
- Noda, Obama to Make Joint Call for New Order in Asia-Pacific Region, The Japan Times Online, April 2012.
- EU Code of Conduct: Commentary on Indian Concerns and their Effects, The Space Review, November 2011.
- Asia’s Space Race: National Motivations, Regional Rivalries, and International Risks, December 2011. (Book by James Clay Moltz)
- EU Space Code of Conduct: The Solution to Space Debris? BBC News, March 2012.
- In Defense of Japan: From the Market to the Military in Space Policy, 2010. (Book by Saadia M. Pekkanen and Paul Kallender-Umezu).
- An interview with Saadia M. Pekkanen: Japan’s Evolving Space Program, The National Bureau of Asian Research, April 2012.
- Asia and a Space Code, The Diplomat, January 2012.
- National Security Space Strategy, United States Department of Defense and United States Office of the Director of National Intelligence, January 2011.
- Statement of Ms. Medlyn R. Creedon, Assistant Secretary of Defense, Global Strategic Affairs, The Senate Armed Services Committee, March 2012.
Related Memos:
- Our other Memos on Asia