2017 UNIDIR Space Security Conference - The Outer Space Treaty's 50th Anniversary: Reviewing the Regime

The United Nation's Institute for Disarmament Research's (UNIDIR) Space Security Conference series has proved to be an invaluable forum for policy dialogue and an effective vehicle for informing international space and security policy perspectives. 

The 2017 conference, organized by UNIDIR in collaboration with Secure World Foundation and The Simons Foundation Canada, focused on the regime established by 1967's Outer Space treaty. As more countries and commercial entities undertake space ventures, the near-Earth space domain has become more crowded and possibly hazardous. The international community has been engaged in multiple activities to enhance international stability and ensure that space operations can be safe, secure and sustainable over the long term. These include multilateral initiatives, primarily within the United Nations, to promote and build multilateral consensus on norms of behavior. Nonetheless, progress has been intermittent and further work is required.

UNIDIR's 2017 Space Security Conference reviewed the main multilateral international initiatives to safeguard access to, and use of, outer space and assess the adequacy of the outer space regime in an evolving space environment, where new threats to space systems and developments in space activities are believed to be potentially destabilizing. The Conference, organized at a time when situational awareness, preparedness, resilience and strategic autonomy have become critical factors for all our public policies, represented a much-needed complement to shaping more incisive security policies.

This event is invitation-only; for more information, please contact Washington Office Director Victoria Samson at vsamson@swfound.org

Event Materials

The final agenda is available here.

Biographies of speakers are available here.

Audio recordings of the entire event are available on UNIDIR's website here.

Space Security 2017 - Conference Report