Brian Weeden Moderates Policy Panel and Delivers Policy Keynote at Inaugural CODER Space Debris Workshop

Thursday, November 20, 2014

November 18-20, 2014, the University of Maryland's inaugural Center for Orbital Debris Education and Research (CODER) Workshop took place in College Park. Maryland. The event brought together more than 100 space debris experts to discuss the technical, legal, and policy aspects of dealing with space debris.

On November 18, SWF Technical Advisor Brian Weeden moderated a panel discussion on policy aspects of space debris. The panel included U.S. government representatives from the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), State Department, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and Congress. The panelists provided perspectives from their individual agencies on policy issues, priorities, and initiatives for dealing with space debris, and discussed some of the policy challenges along the way.

On November 20, Mr. Weeden delivered a keynote presentation on space policy and priorities for addressing space debris. His presentation, entitled "Policy and Priorities for Tackling Super Wicked Problems and Avoiding the Tragedy of the Commons (In Space)," provided an overview of why traditional public policy analysis and problem-solving techniques fail at solving "super wicked problems" that involve collective action by a large group of actors. Drawing on the existing research on collective action problems and sustainable governance of common-pool resources (CPRs), Mr. Weeden provides strategies and suggestions for how the space community can develop mechanisms for dealing with space debris, and ultimately improving the long-term sustainability of space.