"Space Resources and Prospects for Contested Governance" - by CWP alum Alanna Krolikowski
As natural resources found on celestial bodies, such as lunar regolith and asteroidal water, become important to upcoming space missions, states are developing contending institutions to govern their exploitation. This chapter begins with a definition and typology of space resources and discusses their prospects for exploitation. It then considers the state of existing governance structures for space resources, identifying a need for institutional development. It goes on to analyze states’ different interests in governance to explain the international community’s bifurcation into two emerging camps, each advocating a distinct approach to regime building. The first camp, led by the United States, is creating permissive and voluntary institutions to facilitate near-term commercial exploitation. The second, loosely coalescing around Russia and many other states, aims to gradually develop a more restrictive and binding regime. This cleavage portends a contested and fragmented international order governing space resource exploitation.
CHAPTER 35 Space Resources and Prospects for Contested Governance Alanna Krolikowski, Martin Elvis
https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197582671.013.37 - Pages 665–684 - Published: 22 February 2024
Dr. Alanna Krolikowski is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T), where she specializes in policy for science, technology, and innovation. Her research and teaching focus on policy for space activities, the Chinese and U.S. innovation systems, and China’s foreign relations.
Dr. Krolikowski’s research has been published in the academic research journals Space Policy, Global Policy, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (A), the Journal of International Relations and Development, the Chinese Journal of International Politics, New Space, and the International Studies Review. She has twice testified before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission for the U.S. Congressional record and is a frequent contributor to news coverage of international developments in outer space.
Before joining Missouri S&T, Dr. Krolikowski was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and the University of Alberta’s China Institute and a visiting professor in the society and economy of China at the University of Göttingen.
Photo Credit: https://pixabay.com/users/wikiimages-1897/
