• DOI:10.1080/09592296.2020.1760038
• Corpus ID: 221060714

Merely a ‘Scrap of Paper’? The Outer Space Treaty in Historical Perspective

@article{Buono2020MerelyA,
  title={Merely a ‘Scrap of Paper’? The Outer Space Treaty in Historical Perspective},
  author={Stephen Buono},
  journal={Diplomacy \& Statecraft},
  year={2020},
  volume={31},
  pages={350 - 372}
}

• Stephen Buono
• Published 2 April 2020
• Political Science
• Diplomacy & Statecraft

ABSTRACT In 1967, the United States, the Soviet Union, and dozens of other countries ratified the Outer Space Treaty [OST], a signal diplomatic agreement that outlawed nuclear weapons from space, forbade military installations and manoeuvres from the Moon and other celestial bodies, and declared the cosmos a special zone free for all to use and explore, ‘the province of all mankind’. At the time and since, political commentary on the accord sharply divides between those believing it to have contributed to the preservation of space from Cold War rivalry and those maintaining that it was a primarily rhetorical document serving as superpower propaganda. This analysis positions the OST in deeper historical context – within the budding field of space law, the growing power of the United Nations, and the aspirations of the Global South – to show that the treaty was neither what its supporters nor detractors had claimed.