Opinion Paper 17/2021 12/02/2021 Pablo Santa-Bárbara Vozmediano* Geopolitics of the Moon: the Visit Web Receive Newsletter dawn of a new space era Geopolitics of the Moon: the dawn of a new space era Abstract: Technological development and recent successes of ambitious space programs are bringing outer space and the Moon back to the geopolitical debate. The proliferation of space public and private actors, together with the raising interdependence between space security and global security, are reshaping space geopolitics. In this context, space governance seems to be on a turning point from an era characterised by cooperation under the international legal framework of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, to another in which the main tone is competition. Under these circumstances, it is important to analyse the rules, principles, actors, strategies, threats and opportunities that shape current space and Moon geopolitics, with special attention to the ongoing process of configuration of the dynamics and norms that will characterise the new space era. Keywords: Space and Moon geopolitics, space governance, Outer Space Treaty, Astropolitik, space security *NOTE: The ideas contained in the Opinion Papers shall be responsibility of their authors, without necessarily reflecting the thinking of the IEEE or the Ministry of Defense. Opinion Paper 17/2021 1 Geopolitics of the Moon: the dawn of a new space era Pablo Santa-Bárbara Vozmediano How to quote: SANTA-BÁRBARA VOZMEDIANO, Pablo. Geopolitics of the Moon: the dawn of a new space era. Opinion Paper. IEEE 17/2021. http://www.ieee.es/Galerias/fichero/docs_opinion/2021/DIEEEO17_2021_PABSAN_Geopolitica Luna_ENG.pdf and/or link bie3 (accessed on the web day/month/year) Opinion Paper 17/2021 2 Geopolitics of the Moon: the dawn of a new space era Pablo Santa-Bárbara Vozmediano Introduction At the end of 2020, newspapers, and television programs all around the World covered the successful landing and safe return of Chinese Chang’e 5 mission to the Moon. Far from massive enthusiasm generated by Soviet and American programs during the Cold War, the occasion went relatively unnoticed for a public debate focused on the COVID- 19 pandemic, while the scientific community celebrated the important opportunities for investigation deriving from the mission. The reading of the event, however, was different at the political and military levels of other space powers, as it supposed another step into the still uncertain new space era. Since the beginning of the space race between the USSR and the US in the 1950’s, outer space became the object of a new field of geopolitics: outer space geopolitics. Apollo and Sputnik program put the Moon in the centre of the competition for space predominance between the two superpowers; a competition that ended in the 1960’s, when struggle in outer space eventually yielded to a multilaterally designed system of governance based on the principles of freedom of access, non-appropriation and peaceful use of outer space, the Moon and other celestial bodies. The space system, however, was conceived for a Cold War order, and lacks the capability to adapt to an emerging new space era characterised by rapid technological change, the proliferation of public and private space actors, the securitization of the domain and the extension of terrestrial geopolitical rivalries to outer space. In this context, it is interesting to analyse the geopolitics of outer space at the beginning of what some authors call the new space race; and more concretely the geopolitics of the Moon, that is in the centre of international legal debate and plays a crucial role in the space strategies of all the relevant actors. This article, hence, focuses on the study of the new geopolitics of the Moon in the broader context of outer space geopolitics, a vast field that remains mainly unexplored. International legal regime of the Moon Outer space international legal regime has its origin in Cold War era, in which space race between the US and the USSR brought outer space to the centre of geopolitics. In the context of competition between USSR’s Sputnik and US’ Apollo programs, which had Opinion Paper 17/2021 3 Geopolitics of the Moon: the dawn of a new space era Pablo Santa-Bárbara Vozmediano reaching the Moon as one of their main goals, the great powers understood that some cooperation for establishing basic legal standards was necessary to regulate the new frontier of geopolitical arena: outer space, the Moon and other celestial bodies1. Following this conviction, and short after the successful launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, Resolution 1348 (XIII) was adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 13, 1958, instituting the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS), an ad hoc organism that, already on 1959, acquired the status of permanent subsidiary body of the General Assembly with Resolution 1472 (XIV). With the impulse of the UNCOPUOS, five multilateral treaties were negotiated and approved in the 1960’s and the 1970’s: the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, approved on January 1967; the Agreement on the Rescue of Astronauts, the Return of Astronauts and the Return of Objects Launched into Outer Space, adopted on April 1968; the Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects, from March 1972; the Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space, open for signature on January 1975; and the Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, approved on December 19792. The first one, known as the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (OST) is the main international legal instrument concerning outer space, with more than one hundred states parties. With regard to the Moon, rules and principles from the OST, expressly extended to the satellite and other celestial bodies, were complemented by the dispositions of the already mentioned 1979 Moon Agreement, whose importance is much more limited as it has only been ratified by less than 20 states, none of them being a space power3. The analysis shall focus, hence, on the dispositions of the OST treaty as the constitutive instrument of outer space international law, as well as on some declarations of principles and UNGA 1 GABRIELE LUCERA, Gianfranco. “International Geopolitics and Space Regulation”, Oxford Research Encyclopaedias, Planetary Science, May 2019. Available at: https://oxfordre.com/planetaryscience/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190647926.001.0001/acrefore- 9780190647926-e-40#:~:text=The%20classical%20geopolitics%20deals%20with,outer%20space%20con 2 United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, “United Nations Treaties and Principles on Outer Space, related General Assembly resolutions and other documents”, non-dated. Available at: https://www.unoosa.org/pdf/publications/ST_SPACE_061Rev01E.pdf 3 BURRIS, Matthew. “Astroimpolitic: Organizing Outer Space by the Sword”, Strategic Studies Quarterly, 7, 108-129, 2013. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26270588?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents Opinion Paper 17/2021 4 Geopolitics of the Moon: the dawn of a new space era Pablo Santa-Bárbara Vozmediano resolutions on the subject. Previously to the elaboration of the OST, two important UN General Assembly resolutions and a treaty related to outer space were adopted. On the one hand, Resolution 1721 (XVI), on International Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, from 1961, and Resolution 1962 (XVIII), on the Declaration of Legal Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, from 1963, were the foundation for an outer space regime based on peaceful cooperation, freedom of access and exploration, and non-appropriation. On the other hand, the writing of the Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space, and Under Water commonly known as the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, already prevented the nuclearization of outer space4. This way, current international legal regime on the Moon is based on a series of principles expressed on 1967 Outer Space Treaty, that referred to outer space and celestial bodies as ‘province of all mankind’ (art. 1). Hence, the legal regime of the Moon is based on the principles of freedom of access, use, exploration, and investigation (art. 1); of non- appropriation by any mean (art. 2); and of compliance with international law, cooperation and understanding as the basic for maintaining peace and security in outer space (art. 3). Moreover, the treaty specifies that the Moon shall only be used for peaceful purposes, forbidding not only the deployment of ‘nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction’, but also any attempt to militarise the satellite (art. 4). The same way, the treaty contemplates states’ international responsibility for governmental or non- governmental activities conducted in outer space or the celestial bodies (art. 6), as well as liability for damage caused to other actors on the Moon (art.7). Finally, cooperation and mutual assistance are highlighted as driving principles for activities in outer space and the Moon (art.9)5. The rest of the multilateral treaties, and other General Assembly resolutions and declarations of principles on the subject, followed the constitutive principles of the OST, whose provisions have become customary international law due to their sustained 4 GABRIELE LUCERA, Gianfranco. “International Geopolitics and Space Regulation”, Oxford Research Encyclopaedias, Planetary Science, May 2019. Available at: https://oxfordre.com/planetaryscience/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190647926.001.0001/acrefore- 9780190647926-e-40#:~:text=The%20classical%20geopolitics%20deals%20with,outer%20space%20con 5 United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, “Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies”, 1967. Available at: https://www.unoosa.org/pdf/publications/ST_SPACE_061Rev01E.pdf Opinion Paper 17/2021 5 Geopolitics of the Moon: the dawn of a new space era Pablo Santa-Bárbara Vozmediano practice.