Can the Militarization of Space by the United States be Justified Yes essays

Can the Militarization of Space by the United States be Justified Yes essays Background and Overview. Any introduction of weaponry into space territories must take into consideration the controlling national and international laws. According to Georg Schwarzenberger and Bin Cheng (2004), the evolution of space law can be traced to President Dwight D. Eisenhower's introduction of the concept into the United Nations in 1957 as an overall part of disarmament negotiations. After the successful launchings of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1 in 1957, followed by the U.S. satellite Explorer 1 in 1958, both the United States and the Soviet Union assumed an active role in the development of international space policy. At this time, it was established that traditional laws of sovereignty that allow any nation to claim for itself uninhabited and uncivilized lands were not viable concepts for space territories; further, it was determined that individual nationals should not be allowed to extend the boundaries of their dominion indefinitely into the space regions above them; however, a claim of sovereignty has already been made by certain equatorial states over portions of the geostationary orbit, some 22,000 miles above the Earth In 1959, the path for peaceful exploration of space was established through a permanent Outer Space Committee formed for the purpose of maintaining the United Nations Charter and other international law in space. The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed in 1963, followed by an Outer Space Committee resolution designed to prohibit nuclear weapons testing in space. Later in 1963, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration of Legal Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space as one of the first efforts by the international community to set up a legal regime for outer space; however, this Declaration did not specifically recognize the military possibilities of outer space (Jas...