THE SECURITY IMPACT OF THE MILITARIZATION OF OUTER SPACE

Abstract

The competition for the military conquest of outer space dominated the public agenda during the Cold War. It was the spatial side of the geopolitical competition between the capitalist West and the communist East. It started with the researches for the development of strategic armaments and it ended with the military space programs launched by the great powers of the post-war era, which transformed the outer space into a real theater of operations. Theater currently relieved, by the Cosmic Space Treaty, of weapons of mass destruction. However, the unregulated military action in outer space, and especially the problems of defining the boundary between outer space and atmospheric space, can become explosive at any time. This article aims to present the main space powers, the space military programs they run and the potential security impact of the militarization of outer space.