The future of space security: framing the development of TCBMs in parallel multilateral fora

Ben Baseley-Walker is Programme Lead of the Emerging Security Threats Programme at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research UNIDIR. With significant experience in international relations, international law, and strategic communications, Mr. Baseley-Walker brings an innovative strategic approach to his work facilitating and supporting international dialog on emerging areas of conflict and international security. Before joining UNIDIR, Mr. Baseley-Walker was the Advisor on Security Policy and International Law for the Secure World Foundation (SWF). In this role he focused on engaging the international community, especially emerging space States, on looking at new methods for multilateral negotiations of space-related international security issues. Previously, Mr. Baseley-Walker worked in international relations and international law in East Africa with the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, the Ethiopia International Law Project and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Nairobi, Kenya. Mr. Baseley-Walker studied International and European Law at the Universiteit Van Amsterdam Law School in the Netherlands, and Politics at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He is a graduate of International Space University Space Studies Programme in Beijing.

Duncan Blake is a Legal Officer in the Royal Australian Air Force with 17 years’ experience at the tactical, operational and strategic levels at home and on operational deployments overseas. He has worked with strike and fighter jet forces and units responsible for airspace surveillance. He has also been a prosecutor for the military. He is currently Deputy Director of the Military Law Centre and has a secondary role as legal advisor to the Australian Defence Space Coordinating Office. Wing Commander Blake has contributed extensively to the doctrine and policy of the Australian Department of Defence and Australian government as a whole, on issues of operations law and, especially in the last four years, on space law in an operational and strategic context. He chairs an inter-departmental working group on space law for the Australian government and also chairs an international military space law working group. Wing Commander Blake is a graduate of the Australian Command and Staff College and he is currently completing his thesis for his second Master of Laws degree, this time at the Institute of Air and Space Law, McGill University, focusing on space law. His research relates to international law potentially applicable to the initiation and conduct of hostilities in the space domain.

Richard Buenneke is senior advisor for national security space policy in the Office of Missile Defense and Space Policy, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, at the United States Department of State in Washington, D.C. In his current position, Mr. Buenneke participates in planning and implementation of diplomatic and public diplomacy activities relating to U.S. national security space policy. He also currently serves as the co-chairman of an international expert group on space debris, space operations and tools for collaborative space situational awareness, which is an element of a working group on the long-term sustainability of space activities of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. Before joining the State Department as a Foreign Affairs Officer in March 2007, Mr. Buenneke was a senior policy analyst at The Aerospace Corporation, a federally-funded research and development center. In this position, he led Aerospace’s support to the planning and strategy directorate of the National Security Space Office in U.S. Department of Defense’s Executive Agent for Space. In this assignment, he served as lead analyst for NSSO’s work on commercial satellite protection. From 2001 to 2003, he led Aerospace’s Center for Space Policy and Strategy. Prior to joining Aerospace, Mr. Buenneke was a space policy analyst at Booz Allen Hamilton in McLean, Va., and the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, Calif. In these positions, he participated in studies on the health of the U.S. space industrial base, military use of commercial space capabilities, and operational requirements for satellite early warning systems. Mr. Buenneke holds Bachelor’s degrees in economics and systems engineering from the Wharton and Engineering schools of the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds Masters’ degrees in policy analysis from George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs and the Pardee RAND Graduate School.

Tiffany Chow is a Project Manager for Secure World Foundation, where she oversees and supports projects dealing with international security and legislative issue areas. She has been active in the international relations and international security fields for the past four years and brings to SWF a diverse range of experience. Prior to joining Secure World Foundation, Ms. Chow worked for the Center for American Politics and Public Policy at UCLA where she assisted the Director and Administrative Director with research projects and program logistics. Before that, she interned with the Monterey Institute for International Studies' Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) in Washington, DC where she provided research support on a wide array of topics including export control issues in the United Arab Emirates, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1540, and the potential for microreactors to be used for the proliferation of chemical weapons. Ms. Chow held this internship while participating in the prestigious UCLA Quarter in Washington program, where she also completed a large-scale independent research paper entitled "Reevaluating the Nonproliferation Regime: An Application of John Ruggie's Regime Theory." Ms. Chow received her Master of Arts degree in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, DC. At SAIS, she specialized in General International Relations and International Economics and was involved in SAIS Leads, the school's leadership development program. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she double majored in European Studies and Political Science, with an emphasis in International Relations. She has also studied at the University of Cambridge in England and in Rome, Italy.

Bharath Gopalaswamy is an Associate Director at the Program in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to his current position, Dr. Gopalaswamy was a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI) Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Programme. He holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering with a specialization in Numerical Acoustics from Trinity College, Dublin. After completing his PhD, he was a postdoctoral associate at Cornell University’s Peace Studies Program in which he applied his technical knowledge to international security issues.

Joan Johnson-Freese is a Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. She served as department chair from 2002-2008. Prior to 2002, Dr. Johnson-Freese was a faculty member in the University of Florida system, at the Air War College, and the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu, HI. She has written over 100 articles, as well as 7 books, on space security issues. She has testified before the U.S. Congress on multiple occasions regarding space security generally and the Chinese space program specifically, and lectured on those topics all over the world. Dr. Johnson-Freese is a member of the Space Studies Board of the National Academies of Science, on the advisory committee of the Secure World Foundation, and a Fellow of the International Federation of Aeronautics and Astronautics. She also teaches courses on Globalization and US National Security, and Space and Security, at Harvard Extension School and Harvard Summer School. Her latest book is Educating America’s Military, looking at Professional Military Education (PME) practices at U.S. War Colleges, forthcoming from Rutledge Press in November 2012.

Victor Vasiliev graduated in 1989 from the Moscow State Institute (University) of International Relations; following graduation, Mr. Vasiliev worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the USSR (Russia) until 1993. He served two terms in the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations in New York, from 1993 to 1997 and 2000 to 2004. His most recent position was as Senior Counselor for political affairs. Since 2004 he has been Deputy-Director of the Department of International Organizations of the Russian Foreign Ministry; he also served as Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva in charge of Disarmament and Political issues since 2007. Mr. Vasiliev participated as a member of the Soviet/Russian delegations at various international fora, including NPT 1995, 2000, 2005 Review Conferences, UNGA Sessions and First Committee meetings, sessions of UN Disarmament Commission, etc. He was a governmental expert in the Group of Governmental Experts on verification in all its aspects in 2005–2006. Mr. Vasiliev is currently the Chair of the Group of Governmental Experts on Transparency and Confidence Building Measures in Outer Space Activities.

The Future of Space Security: Framing the Development of TCBMs in Multilateral Fora

 Report

The Secure World Foundation (SWF) and the United Nations Institute on Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) co-hosted a side event entitled “The Future of Space Security: Framing the Development of TCBMs in Multilateral Fora”on Thursday, October 18, 2012, at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York. The event took place alongside the recent meetings of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) First and Fourth Committees and featured a panel of speakers discussing the work being done at the international level on transparency and confidence building measures (TCBMs) for outer space activities. The speakers, representing a cross-section of government and academic experts, exchanged their views before a capacity crowd.

First, Mr Victor Vasiliev, Chairman of the UN Group of Governmental Experts on Transparency and Confidence-Building Measures in Outer Space Activities (GGE), reported on the progress achieved during the first of three meetings of the GGE, held in New York from July 23 to 27, 2012. At the request of the UNGA First Committee, the UN Secretary-General charged this group – comprised of experts nominated by the governments of Brazil, Chile, China, France, Italy, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, the Republic of Korea, Romania, the Russian Federation, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America – to investigate the present state of TCBMs in outer space. The GGE’s objective is to produce a comprehensive report aimed at improving international cooperation on space security and reducing the risk of misunderstanding and miscommunication among States through transparency and confidence building measures. Mr Vasiliev reported that the GGE had agreed to work through consensus and on its tentative work schedule. In particular, he stressed that the GGE would be engaging in a concerted outreach effort to engage with the international space and security communities in order to draw upon as much expertise as possible in fulfillment of its mandate. He stated that the GGE would welcome written recommendations from intergovernmental bodies, industry and private sector, civil society, and other Member States not already represented in the group.

Next, Mr. Richard Buenneke, Co-Chair of Expert Group B of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space Working Group on the Long Term Sustainability of Outer Space (LTSSA), discussed the work being carried out on the topic, “Space Debris, Space Operations and Tools to Support Collaborative Space Situational Awareness.” He noted that Expert Group B was working toward identification of best practice guidelines that could help address issues such as information exchange on orbital conjunctions and collision avoidance. Mr. Buenneke also pointed out that there are plans for all four expert groups of the UN COPUOS Scientific and Technical Subcommittee to meet and address topics of overlap.

Mr. Duncan Blake, Legal Advisor for the Defence Space Coordinating Office at the Department of Defence of Australia, speaking in his personal capacity, addressed the interest of new space actors, such as Australia, and their expectations of TCBMs. Mr. Blake focused on how TCBMs might reduce the possibility of space turning into an even more sharply contested domain by helping to implement existing rules of international law. He particularly focused on how States might constructively communicate the “intent” behind their national space activities to increase confidence and trust in the international community.

Dr. Joan Johnson-Freese, Professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval War College, also speaking in her personal capacity, discussed the national security interests that may impact the development of TCBMs. She emphasized the importance of perception in space security issues and of tamping down sensationalized interpretations of space activities. In terms of space sustainability, she noted that this was one area where all parties involved, including spacefaring and non-spacefaring States, agree that steps need to be taken to preserve space-based global utilities such as space-based internet access and navigation systems. However, because States were divided on how to proceed, particularly in respect to the development of legally-binding treaties, a voluntary instrument might be the next best means to making progress towards long-term sustainability in outer space. In this context, she was encouraged by the renewed efforts to develop TCBMs in multilateral fora such as UNCOPUOS and the GGE.

Finally, Dr. Bharath Gopalaswamy, Visiting Associate Director of the Program in Arms Control for Disarmament & International Security at the University of Illinois, addressed the technical aspects of TCBMs and how technology plays a role in States’ decision-making processes. He stressed that the role of TCBMs would, ultimately, depend on making States feel more comfortable in the sharing of sensitive information, which would lead to ensuring long-term sustainability in space. He added that one of the principal hurdles to address was the dual use nature of space technology, referring to the civilian and military capabilities of space assets, and that means of securely sharing data about such technology would play an important role in the TCBM negotiations ahead.

Together, the panelists’ remarks demonstrated the importance of pursuing and developing TCBMs in important international fora like the UNGA First and Fourth Committees. Their presentations indicated that, while progress has been made, more work must be done to ensure these TCBMs are as inclusive as possible, capture current best practices in safe space operations, respect existing international law, reflect national security interests, and are founded in technical realities. If these objectives are accomplished in the current work towards TCBMs for space, the international community will be closer to the ultimate goal of space security and sustainability.