Space and Cyber Security Highlights

Space Security Index 2019 is the 16th annual report on developments related to safety, sustainability, and security in outer space. It is part of the broader Space Security Index (SSI) project, which aims to improve transparency on space activities and provide a common, comprehensive, objective knowledge base to support the development of dialogue and policies that contribute to the governance of outer space as a shared global commons. Inside this report, you will find contextual information and annual updates on 17 indicators of space security, organized under four broad themes. This arrangement is intended to reflect the increasing interdependence, mutual vulnerabilities, and synergies of outer space activities.

"Will Outer Space become a new frontier for international conflict? Or can it remain a global commons? As states dither, this question may soon be taken over by other actors."  Visit the Centre for International Policy Studies at the University of Ottawa at the following link for analysis by Paul Meyer, The Simons Foundation's Senior Fellow in Space and Cyber Security.

The 2019 UNIDIR Space Security Conference, "Supporting Diplomacy: Clearing the Path for Dialogue", was held on 28–29 May 2019 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, and brought together experts and diplomats from around the world to examine some of the technical and policy questions impacting multilateral dialogues on space security and to seek possible paths forward towards stability in space. See the following link for the complete Conference Report.

Visit Legion Magazine at the link below for this debate where Ernie Regehr, Senior Fellow in Arctic Security and Defence at The Simons Foundation, presents the argument that space should not be weaponized and David J. Bercuson offers his opinion that it should.

See the link below for this presentation made by Paul Meyer, The Simons Foundation's Senior Fellow in Space and Cyber Security, at the 2019 Space Security Conference hosted by the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on May 28-29, 2019.

In a break with the past, the US rejected all four resolutions on space security adopted this fall at the UN General Assembly's First Committee. Visit the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists for commentary by Paul Meyer, Senior Fellow in Space and Cyber Security at The Simons Foundation.

Visit the ICT for Peace Foundation for this analysis by Paul Meyer, The Simons Foundation's Senior Fellow in Space and Cyber Security.

By Paul Meyer
Senior Fellow in Space and Cyber Security
The Simons Foundation
Simons Papers in Security and Development No. 67/2018
Published by the School for International Studies
Simon Fraser University 
November 2018

 

Visit The Hill Times (subscription required) for this commentary by Paul Meyer, The Simons Foundation’s Senior Fellow in Space and Cyber Security.

This fall’s session of the General Assembly’s First Committee witnessed a discouraging rupture in the previous broad consensus as to how the UN should proceed to develop norms of responsible state behaviour in cyberspace. Two parallel and competing processes have been established to pursue essentially the same subject matter. It does not augur well for the future coherence and efficiency of UN level efforts to build common understandings in this sensitive international security realm. Visit OpenCanada.org at the following link for commentary by Paul Meyer, The Simons Foundation’s Senior Fellow in Space and Cyber Security.