The Atlantic Council has recently released a 100-page report with its recommendations for more effective space security.
The Atlantic Council, an international security think tank, calls on the United States and allies to advocate for new global rules for greater space security. This can be accomplished, the Atlantic Council believes, by implementing steps that could be taken over the next 30 years to ensure space remains accessible and peaceful.
For one thing, the report advocates for the overhaul of the body of international law governing space, the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.
The report advises a new treaty is needed to address the security and commercial realities of space in the 21st century. The report also call for a coalition to push back on Russian and Chinese testing and deployments of anti-satellites weapons.
From the report:
“As private sector investment catalyzes a space commerce boom, great power competition and counterspace capabilities threaten freedom of access. To contend with these challenges, the United States and its allies and partners need to work together on a strategy to advance their the short-, medium-, and long-term objectives in the space domain.”
Retired Marine Corps general James Cartwright is one of the report’s authors. He believes there could become a “wild West environment” if a new global space security accord is not reached.
He has specifically expressed concerns about the U.S. government’s ambitions to develop a space economy around the moon – a project he feels will be in jeopardy unless rules of behavior are adopted by all nations with space interests.
Space security specialists have been concerned for some time now that there are no rules about space that are enforceable currently.
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