ABSTRACT
In this chapter, students will learn about space as a site of security. While concerns with the relationship between space and security in the past focused on space as a new arena of great-power conflict (for example US President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative) or representations of humanity’s future in popular culture (for example, Star Trek), this chapter focuses more specifically on the security implications of plans for resource extraction and future colonization of space. It asks how these activities may challenge existing international law and norms regarding the use of outer space, spark conflict over valuable territories or resources and promote colonial strategies. Plans to colonize outer space also have important implications for human security. In particular, the visions outlined by ‘NewSpace’ entrepreneurs may have profound impacts in terms of gender, race, the vulnerability of migrants and workers and the rights of Indigenous peoples. By critically examining this new mode of colonization, this chapter explores the wide range of security implications of plans to annex outer space.
