United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research
Published: 2015
Total Pages: 56
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"The importance of outer space continues to grow exponentially around the world. As space activities increase and more States becoming spacefaring, or increase their reliance on space services, developing necessary mechanisms for State-to-State interaction on space topics has become an increasing focus of the international community. For many years, UNIDIR efforts have been concentrated on supporting dialogue and discussion on developing the next phases of mechanisms for building an effective space security regime; one that can meet the needs of international community in future interactions on civil, commercial and international security related space issues. To this end, as part of UNIDIR's 'Facilitating the Process for the Development of an International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities' project, UNIDIR developed a series of analytical papers and carried out a series of regional meetings focused on the development of norms of behaviour for outer space activities. Over 150 governmental and non-governmental participants attended UNIDIR's regional seminars with representation from over 50 countries. This level of engagement demonstrates the growing commitment of governments around the world to make progress on developing norms of behaviour that can contribute to the development of a stable, resilient, comprehensive space security regime. This also underlines the importance of inclusive fora where all space actors are engaged. This publication is a compendium of six papers and four seminar reports which provide both analytical thinking and a snapshot of the views and opinions of a wide swathe of space actors--established and emerging, current and future. We would like to thank the European Union for their financial support of this project and the governments of Ethiopia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, and in the context of the ASEAN Regional Forum, Australia and Viet Nam, for their hosting and/or support. UNIDIR will continue to support the international community in all aspects of international dialogue on building agreement on norms of behaviour for outer space activities, including discussions working towards an international code of conduct and other non-legally binding and legally binding initiatives. We hope you find these documents a useful contribution to your thinking and we look forward to continuing to cooperate with all those with space equities in the future. The importance of outer space continues to grow exponentially around the world. As space activities increase and more States becoming spacefaring, or increase their reliance on space services, developing necessary mechanisms for State-to-State interaction on space topics has become an increasing focus of the international community. For many years, UNIDIR efforts have been concentrated on supporting dialogue and discussion on developing the next phases of mechanisms for building an effective space security regime; one that can meet the needs of international community in future interactions on civil, commercial and international security related space issues. To this end, as part of UNIDIR's 'Facilitating the Process for the Development of an International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities' project, UNIDIR developed a series of analytical papers and carried out a series of regional meetings focused on the development of norms of behaviour for outer space activities. Over 150 governmental and non-governmental participants attended UNIDIR's regional seminars with representation from over 50 countries. This level of engagement demonstrates the growing commitment of governments around the world to make progress on developing norms of behaviour that can contribute to the development of a stable, resilient, comprehensive space security regime. This also underlines the importance of inclusive fora where all space actors are engaged. This publication is a compendium of six papers and four seminar reports which provide both analytical thinking and a snapshot of the views and opinions of a wide swathe of space actors--established and emerging, current and future. We would like to thank the European Union for their financial support of this project and the governments of Ethiopia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, and in the context of the ASEAN Regional Forum, Australia and Viet Nam, for their hosting and/or support. UNIDIR will continue to support the international community in all aspects of international dialogue on building agreement on norms of behaviour for outer space activities, including discussions working towards an international code of conduct and other non-legally binding and legally binding initiatives. We hope you find these documents a useful contribution to your thinking and we look forward to continuing to cooperate with all those with space equities in the future."--Page 1.