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international

private sector engagement, and vice versa. “Logic is the
Yet, possibilities for global space collaboration beginning of
are endless. Space is a key growth area for wisdom… not the
future global economy. The space economy end.”
is about US$ 600-700 billion and expected to
grow to $2 trillion by 2035, according to UN
space champion Brian Cox, British physicist and
former rock banner.

Beyond the UN, multinational space cooperation
continues. At the International Space Station
(ISS), for example, the US, Russia, Canada, Japan,
and European countries are working together on
scientific research.

In Geneva, the European Organization for
Nuclear Research (CERN), funded by countries
and corporate donors, has global networks
of experts from more than 110 countries to
uncover, “what the universe is made of and how
it works.” forces operating with growing opaqueness.
Peacekeeping Jedi Knights can turn warmongers.
Some corporate space actors show commitment In all, these three clues do not lead to all answers
to space cooperation. “The future we want to build on future space uses. But they reaffirm space as
in space is a future which is collaborative,” said an ethically charged question.
Hélène Huby, space scientist and The Exploration
Company’s CEO. There is no border line in space. The biggest question in the cosmos, Cox said,
But the geopolitical line remains clear. is “What does it mean to be human?” Space
scientists and political theorists now ask more
Washington leads the Artemis Accords with philosophical questions about space, especially
more than 60 signatory nations. Beijing and when enhanced with AI.
Moscow lead the International Lunar Research
Station with some 15 countries. Senegal and Even some space moguls, military engineers and
Thailand belong to both groupings. space “warfighters” call for more interdisciplinary
dialogue not on logic and science but on “the
Still, space is a kind of “Wild West” frontier, moral truths” and human conscience in space
critics say. Different countries and commercial uses for war and peace. As Spock, Science Officer
interests struggle to agree on global policy and of starship Enterprise in Star Trek, said, “Logic is
legal frameworks and implement them nationally the beginning of wisdom… not the end.”
to manage space.
In wisdom may lie the peace equation in the war
For space collaboration – in and out of the calculus. When empires unravel, the enduring
UN universe -- to work better, there is a need statecraft is the balance of might with justice and
to cut across organizational, bureaucratic and virtue—a guardrail of wisdom for interval peace
disciplinary silos. in humankind’s long history of perpetual wars.

What could future space look like?
“We are now on the verge of becoming a
spacefaring civilization,” Cox said. We will see Suchada Kulawat is an analyst who served
more space stations, commercial research and with Thailand’s Foreign Ministry, the UNDP’s
competing satellite constellations in Earth orbit. Bangkok regional office, Permanent Mission of
Thailand to the UN, and with the UN at New
Either for war or peace, space is now congested, York Headquarters and in UN peace missions in
contested and geopolitically strained by Africa, Asia-Pacific and Europe.

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