Space Security

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  • Himanshu Dwivedi asked: What is the relevance of the Integrated Space Cell?

    Ajey Lele replies: India is committed to the non-weaponisation of space but needs to counter any emergence of offensive counter space systems and anti-satellite weaponry. China undertook an anti-satellite test (ASAT) test in 2007. This test made India realise the importance of space security. It was felt that India lacks ‘structures’ to address such new threats. Hence, in 2010, the then Defence Minister had announced the formation of an Integrated Space Cell.

    Outer Space Treaty: 50 years later

    There is a need to rework the Outer Space Treaty and contemporize it to deal more directly with issues of the current era.

    January 27, 2017

    China’s 2016 Space White Paper: An Appraisal

    While the December 2016 White Paper sheds enough light on China’s growing ambitions in the space sector, it at the same time only reveals what China wants the rest of the world to know.

    January 06, 2017

    India’s Space Security Policy: A Proposal

    India’s Space Security Policy: A Proposal

    It is time India devised a cohesive national policy to guard its interests in space and effectively address existing and emerging challenges.

    April 28, 2016

    Soumyadipta Majumder asked: How the recent success of SpaceX missions open up new vistas for human endeavours in space?

    Ajey Lele replies: SpaceX is making ‘waves’ for its significant success in the outer space arena. Led by Elon Musk, an engineer with specific vision and progressive agenda on outer space, SpaceX has achieved reasonable success mainly in space transportation. Some of its efforts are also supported by America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). SpaceX has big plans for future like colonising Mars. However, this is a very challenging experiment and it’s too early to predict its prospects.

    Outer space comes closer to a regime

    The Group of Government Experts need to take into consideration complex and inter-related concerns of space activities before formulating the Transparency and Confidence Building Measures. The need is to have an effective mechanism and not an accommodative one.

    May 20, 2013

    China’s ‘String of pearls’ in Space

    A ‘pearl’ could be viewed as a sphere of influence seeded, secured and maintained through the use of economic, geopolitical, diplomatic or military means. The ‘string of pearls’ is about China’s unambiguous maritime strategy that investments in increasing its sea power. This is essentially a multi-pronged strategy that challenges dominant US interests in the Indian Ocean and sends a clear message to India that the Indian Ocean is not India’s ocean by increasing the dependence of the littoral states in the region on China.

    March 21, 2013

    Space Sustainability: Consent to Security Insurance

    On 6 June 2012 the European Union (EU) launched a multilateral diplomatic process to discuss and negotiate an International Code of Conduct (CoC) for outer space. This CoC is designed as a complementary mechanism for the existing framework and for ensuring the security, safety and sustainability of all outer space activities. Space sustainability is about ensuring that outer space is used for the advancement of society and providing society with the various benefits of space technologies.

    September 2012

    Deliberating the Space Code of Conduct

    Ajey Lele argues that, in its present avatar, the International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities is not capable of realizing its stated aim fully because it lacks an accountability mechanism.

    June 29, 2012

    Space Code of Conduct: Inadequate Mechanism

    The EU’s Code of Conduct has been advertised as a mechanism to preserve the sustainability and security of space, but it is difficult to comprehend how a non-binding and voluntary mechanism could help achieve this.

    June 18, 2012

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