Space Technology Export Controls and International Cooperation in Outer Space

Export controls definitively impact
international cooperation in outer space.  Civil and commercial space
actors that engage in international endeavors must comply with space
technology export controls. In the general discourse, members of the
civil and commercial space community have an understanding of their
domestic export control regime.  However, a careful reading of the
literature on space technology export controls reveals that certain
questions relevant to international engagements have not been identified
or answered.

What is the legal-political origin of
space technology export controls? How do they relate to the current
international legal structure? What steps can be taken to evolve our
current unilateral paradigm of space technology within the context of
peaceful exploration and use of outer space?

In this book, these and other relevant
questions on space technology export controls are identified and
assessed through an insightful case-study of the U.S. commercial
communication export control regime. The findings of this case-study are
used in an international legal-political analysis of international
space law, public international law, and international cooperation.
Breaking new ground in international legal theory, a self-justified
security dilemma that is manifest in international law is identified and
explained as the origin for the current paradigm of space technology
export controls.