Strategic competition in space
Modern civilizations depend critically on space-based infrastructure and its reliable, secure operation. Indeed, reliance on satellites for communications, data collection, and crisis response - including advanced military capabilities and the detection as well as management of the impacts of climate change - will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. At the same time, the importance of space to humanity goes beyond its mere use by satellites. In any case, as dependence on space resources increases, so does the potential to exert influence on people, institutions, systems and states dependent on them through their strategic technological control. So what about German and European capabilities and dependencies with respect to essential space infrastructures? The holistic exploration and assessment of the European and German position in the strategic competition in space requires not only an examination of actors and their relationships with each other, but also an evaluation of the technologies used and their societal significance. This significance increases to the extent that it can be translated into different facets of power and used to achieve political goals.
Lead
Prof. Dr. Maximilian Mayer
Team
Event series
Lecture series "Nach den Sternen greifen. Der Weltraum als Wirtschafts-, Lebens- und Wettbewerbsraum im 21. Jahrhundert"
Publications
Strategischer Wettbewerb im Weltraum. Politik, Recht, Sicherheit und Wirtschaft im All (Hrsg. gemeinsam mit Antje Nötzold, Andrea Rotter und Moritz Brake), Link.
For the first time since the end of the Cold War, this anthology takes stock of the current activities, legal framework, political and military lines of conflict and areas of cooperation as well as further trends and challenges in space. On the one hand, the legal, military, economic and technological challenges of the growing importance of this strategically important area are analyzed. On the other hand, the ability and need for action of selected space powers, their cooperation possibilities and conflict potentials as well as the need for international political regulation are worked out and, based on this, political recommendations for action are presented.
"For the first time in the German-speaking world, this book offers an excellent insight into the multidimensional field of tension of space utilization in the 21st century, paints a precise picture of the players and conflicts and provides valuable impulses for the future use of space as a common good for our benefit."
(Major General Michael Traut, Commander of the German Armed Forces Space Command)
"An outstandingly successful survey of the comprehensive significance of outer space."
(Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Karl Kaiser, Harvard University)
"Due to the outstanding importance of space travel for our society and innovative power, it is to be welcomed that this anthology offers a good, condensed inventory of current space activities, the legal framework, the political and military lines of conflict and areas of cooperation as well as further trends and challenges in space for the German-speaking world."
(Dr. Anna Christmann, Member of the German Bundestag (B90/Greens) and Federal Government Coordinator for German Aerospace)