Nuclear Politics in Outer Space
This task force focuses on the past, present, and future of nuclear politics in outer space. Both the United States and the then Soviet Union tested nuclear weapons involving space during the cold war. Today, the nuclear specter is rising in space again as the world undergoes major geopolitical shifts, calling into question the basis for extended nuclear deterrence. The rise of nuclear politics in space today threatens the civilian and commercial future of a transformed space economy; it is also a menace for the economic, environmental, and social realities for billions of people spread across both developed and emerging spacefaring countries. But how exactly is space implicated in nuclear politics? Where are the nuclear threats coming from today? What, if anything, constrains nuclear testing in space? Looking ahead, what kind of legal, policy, and diplomatic solutions can the United States lead on?
