Challenges of Multilateral Negotiation and Space Security
- Paper number
IAC-06-E3.3.08
- Author
Dr. Lucy Stojak, Institute of Air and Space Law, McGill University, Canada
- Year
2006
- Abstract
The Conference on Disarmament (CD) is the main multilateral disarmament negotiating forum. Discussions at the CD’s ad hoc Committee on the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) have been deadlocked and PAROS has been unable to even agree on a work plan since 1998. At the same time, there has been a growing concern by the international community with respect to renewed interest in the United States to proceed with a National Missile Defense (NMD), and with respect to the ‘weaponization’ of outer space. These concerns are consistently voiced by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in its yearly resolution on the prevention of an arms race in outer space. China and Russia have presented non-papers on verification measures for a treaty banning weapons in space and on extant international legal instruments related to sapce weapons. Other countries have made the point that the number of actors accessing space for commercial, civil and military purposes continues to increase, that space security is therefore a global issue, requiring the cooperation of all States active in space, and that greater corrdination between international fora dealing with different aspects of space activities should be looked at more carefully. This paper will discuss the issue of appropriate forum in addressing the issue of space security in its broadest sense. It will also discuss promising approaches that could be adopted by the international community to prevent the weaponization of space and thus ensure that space remain a secure environment for all actors involved in space activities.
- Abstract document