ABSTRACT
This chapter claims that, when dissecting the emergence of EU space and defence policies, industrial actors are usually depicted as merely those who are supposed to produce what states and EU institutions ask for in terms of capabilities. In other words, their political role as the drivers of militarization is not fully appreciated – crushed somewhere among the supranational Commission, the intergovernmental European Space Agency, and the myriads of member-state interests. This chapter introduces industrial interests as a key source of policy transformation, examining in particular the role of their Brussels lobbying organization, Eurospace-ASD, as well as that of individual companies. Adopting a neo-Gramscian perspective inspired by the work of, among others, Bastiaan van Apeldoorn, Andreas Bieler, and Kees van der Pijl, the chapter is a first attempt to establish the crucial part played by internationalized space-industrial capital in promoting military space agenda in the EU. This trend is documented empirically via material deriving from interviews, official discourse and publications by the industry. Also, it is interpreted by examining key developments in the global political economy of space production that fuel the industry’s quest for more security and defence space programmes at the Brussels level. Overall, it is argued that the European space manufacturers facilitated the emergence of a non-civilian dimension in European space activity, seeing in it a huge opportunity for market expansion and competitive survival.
