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Biden Will Have to Confront a New and Perhaps More Dangerous Space Race

The cooperative vision of space is under stress. Biden should commit the United States to forge new norms and rules of collective security to manage the shared risks and advance the common purposes of all peace-loving nations.

Originally published at World Politics Review

<p>A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying NASA&#8217;s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover vehicle lifts off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida on July 30, 2020. </p>
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover vehicle lifts off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida on July 30, 2020. REUTERS/Joe Skipper

By experts and staff

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  • Stewart M. Patrick
    James H. Binger Senior Fellow in Global Governance and Director of the International Institutions and Global Governance Program

In my weekly column for World Politics Review, I write about how the emergence of new space-faring nations, an explosion of private commercial activity and a brewing arms race are all leaving outdated international institutions in the space dust.

President-elect Joe Biden is a down-to-earth guy, but the fate of the heavens may end up being one of his main foreign policy challenges. The United States has long sought to maintain outer space as an open, stable and rules-bound domain. Unfortunately, this cooperative vision is under stress. The emergence of new space-faring nations, an explosion of private commercial activity and a brewing arms race, among other issues, are all leaving outdated international institutions in the space dust.

Biden has made a “return to multilateralism” the core theme of his proposed foreign policy. Closing glaring gaps in outer space governance should be part of this agenda. Without broad agreement on principles, norms and rules of responsible behavior, today’s final frontier will soon resemble the Wild West of yesteryear.

Read the full World Politics Review article here.