Outer space and neo-colonial injustice: Distributive justice and the continuous scramble for dominium

Abstract

Purpose

Recent developments in US rhetoric and policy advocating the militarisation and marketisation of outer space challenge the global commons values and regimes that developed partly in response to decolonisation. These regimes embodied aspirations to post-colonial distributive justice, as well as to international management for peaceful purposes. The purpose of this paper is to argue that global commons values should be defended against these challenges in order to avoid the risk of exporting colonial legacies of injustice into outer space.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is an exercise in normative International Political Theory and so develops normative arguments by drawing on approaches in political theory and international law.

Findings

This paper demonstrates that the commons values endorsed in the aftermath of colonialism retain their relevance in a global politics that remains structured by post-colonial power relations. This paper also demonstrates that these commons values have evolved and found expression in central elements of international law, persisting as resources to be drawn on in normative argument.

Originality/value

This study places recent moves to assert US hegemony in space in the context of persistent post-colonial power relations and develops novel arguments in renewed support of commons values.

Citation

Sutch, P. and Roberts, P. (2019), "Outer space and neo-colonial injustice: Distributive justice and the continuous scramble for dominium", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 46 No. 11, pp. 1291-1304. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-03-2019-0152