The Circumpolar Podcast - Geopolitics of Outer Space

In this episode of The Circumpolar, Serafima Andreeva speaks with Michael Byers about the geopolitics of outer space. Photo: Serafima Andreeva

The Circumpolar is a podcast on Arctic geopolitics, governance, and security. Created and hosted by Serafima Andreeva, and supported by The Arctic Institute and the Fridtjof Nansen Institute. The podcast brings together leading experts from various fields of Arctic geopolitics and many Arctic and non-Arctic states to unpack key developments, challenge common misconceptions, and discuss the current dynamics of todays changing Arctic.

Geopolitics of Outer Space: competition, militarization, cooperation?

Is space governed well enough, and can we still prevent it from becoming a field of conflict or competition? Serafima sits down with Michael Byers, Professor of Political Science at the University of British Columbia, co-director of the Outer Space Institute and author of Who Owns Outer Space.

Space is more governed than people think, Michael argues. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty was a remarkable document, and its negotiators were prescient. But space is developing very quickly. In just the last ten years we’ve gone from 2,000 operational satellites to 15,000, with plans for more than a million more. Add superpowers who are suspicious of each other, a heavy military reliance on satellites, and Donald Trump’s so-called Golden Dome with over 1,000 space-based missile interceptors, and the security dilemma starts to look familiar.

Drawing on his years working on Arctic governance, Michael walks through the parallels between two areas beyond national jurisdiction where countries almost necessarily have to cooperate. They also get into the renewed race to the moon and why it might really be about Donald Trump’s ego, Elon Musk’s Mars ambitions and the Starlink user agreement that already declares Mars “a free planet beyond the reach of nation states,” the bubble economy of space startups, and what it would actually mean for humanity to find ancient life on another world.