Space Law
A Japanese Perspective on Treaty Obligations Regarding Attacks To, From, or Within Space
As States begin to regard outer space as a war-fighting domain, Japan has followed suit. Although it had long interpreted “peaceful” use of outer space in the Outer Space Treaty (OST) as “non-military” use, seventeen years ago Japan changed its interpretation to...
Shadows in Orbit: Unpacking the Cosmos 2588 Amidst Legal Uncertainty in Space
On 23 May, 2025, Russia launched Cosmos 2588, the latest in its Cosmos series of military satellites, into low Earth orbit (LEO). As first reported by independent satellite tracker Bart Hendrickx on the NASA SpaceFlight Forum, its orbital plane lies very close to that...
Time to Treat Hackers Like Satellites: Why Cyber Needs the Outer Space Rulebook
If you want to understand what’s missing in cyberspace, look up. In 1967, at the height of the Cold War, the international community agreed on the Outer Space Treaty (OST), a legal framework that still governs activity beyond Earth today. The foundational insight of...
Deterrence Doesn’t Fly in Space: Nuclear Weapons in Outer Space as a Threat of Force
In an interview with German newspaper Die Welt on Friday April 12th, NATO Secretary-General Rutte expressed concern regarding the potential deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in orbit around Earth. While this possibility had already surfaced in 2024, as reported by...
Countering Space-Based Weapons of Mass Destruction
Russia’s alleged effort to develop a space-based nuclear weapon threatens to violate the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, undermine international peace and stability, and hold at risk the peaceful use of space for all nations. Other emerging threats, such as China’s...
Year Ahead – U.S. Department of Defense and Space Force Commercial Space Strategies
Editors’ note: We are pleased to announce that Articles of War has recently added several thematic editors to our staff. Each editor has contributed a post to this year’s Year Ahead series with thoughts on issues or situations they recommend our readers track over the...
The Woomera Manual and Military Space Activities and Operations
The ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine has clearly demonstrated the critical role satellites in outer space play in the conduct of contemporary armed conflict. The conflict itself has been termed the first commercial space war given the heavy reliance by both Ukraine...
Russia’s Alleged Nuclear Anti-Satellite Weapon: International Law and Political Rhetoric
The development and testing of anti-satellite weapons (ASATs), as well as debates concerning the legal and policy implications of ASAT testing and use, have existed since soon after the dawn of the Space Age. The centrality of these issues has waxed and waned over...
Space Privateers or Space Pirates? Armed Conflict, Outer Space, and the Attribution of Non-State Activities
Famously, George Clemenceau, Prime Minister of France at the end of the First World War, quipped that “generals always prepare to fight the last war, especially if they won it.” Such flaws of perspicacity, of course, are not limited to generals. After all, as Nobel...
Multi-Domain Legal Warfare: China’s Coordinated Attack on International Rule of Law
Law has emerged as an integral element of gray zone competition. State and non-State actors alike increasingly view law as a means to shape operational spaces, forge perceptions of legitimacy, constrain potential adversaries, and refashion the international system,...
Regulating Military Force Series – The Meaning of Prohibited “Use of Force” in Article 2(4) of the UN Charter
Editors’ note: The author delivered remarks on the subject of this post at the conference “International Law and the Regulation of Resort to Force: Exhaustion, Destruction, Rebirth?” at the Centre for International Humanitarian and Operational Law, Palacký University...
Russian Nuclear Weapons in Space
Recent news reports indicate that U.S. authorities fear Russia “wants to put,” a nuclear weapon into space, with U.S. intelligence describing this as a “serious security threat.” The suggested possible purpose of the weapons would be to target Western satellites in...
The Korean Space Race
At the end of 2023, we enter a new phase of competition and proxy war on the Korean Peninsula in what could be dubbed the Korean Space Race. Kim Jong-un, the mercurial North Korean leader, has long prioritized placing military spy satellites over the Korean Peninsula....
A New Silenus Box: The French Manual on the Law of Military Operations
French armed forces have participated in more than a hundred military operations since 1995. Enhanced operational activity notwithstanding, France strives to consistently keep its military operations in line with international law. The new French Manual on the Law of...
The US Space Force at 3: Growing Dangers for a Growing Branch
On 20 December 2022, the US Space Force (USSF) will celebrate the third anniversary of its creation—an anniversary that comes at the end of a year rife with space-related challenges. The after-effects of Russia’s November 2021 kinetic anti-satellite (ASAT) missile...
Can Starlink Satellites Be Lawfully Targeted?
In an earlier post, I discussed the special attribution regime in Article VI of the Outer Space Treaty (OST) and the risk of activities of commercial actors drawing States into existing armed conflicts. This analysis stemmed from Elon Musk providing Starlink services...
Ukraine Symposium – The Risk of Commercial Actors in Outer Space Drawing States into Armed Conflict
Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the satellite communications firm Viasat confirmed a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that is suspected to have caused a partial outage in its broadband services across KA-SAT, a network that provides internet...
New Edition of The Commander’s Handbook on the Law of Naval Operations
The Stockton Center for International Law (SCIL), U.S. Naval War College (NWC), recently completed a 2-year effort, in coordination with the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Coast Guard, to update The Commander’s Handbook on the Law of Naval Operations (NWP...
Putin and Xi’s Pact for Outer Space
On the eve of the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a joint statement on entering a new era of international relations—including in outer space. The February 4 statement enunciated the importance of...
The Russia-Ukraine War and the Space Domain
As demonstrated by this symposium, every domain of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War presents critical legal questions. This post focuses on the potential consequences of the war on the space domain. Although Russia continues to play a vital role in the development and...
Russia’s ASAT Test and the Development of Space Law
On November 15, Russia launched a direct ascent anti-satellite (ASAT) missile that deliberately struck Cosmos-1408, one of its own satellites that had become inoperable years ago. Massing at about 2,000 kilograms and with an original orbital altitude of about 480...
A Review of U.S. Space Force’s First Year
The newest branch of the U.S. military, the United States Space Force, was mandated by Congress and signed into law and existence by the President on December 19, 2019. The Space Force Professionals, now called Guardians, of the U.S. Air Force had been...
NATO in Outer Space: A Domain Too Far?
This post examines whether Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty is applicable to armed attacks in outer space. NATO nations have recently recognized outer space as a new operational domain for the Alliance. Although the drafters of the North Atlantic Treaty...
Space Power, Space Force, and Space Law
Space is a unique operational domain not only due to its physics, but also due to its legal regime. Although Space Power, the inaugural doctrinal manual of the U.S. Space Force, does not focus on legal issues in and of themselves, it does mention at least one...
