https://spacewatch.global/space-geopolitics/geopolitics-featuring-article/ AN INDEPENDENT PERSPECTIVE ON SPACE Tue, 29 Sep 2026 09:32:10 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.2 https://spacewatch.global/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/SpaceWatchGlobal-Sign-90x90.png https://spacewatch.global/space-geopolitics/geopolitics-featuring-article/ 32 32 https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-opinion-vaduz-says-federate-now-perfect-later/ Tue, 29 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=78326 Europe's usual reflex is to design the institution first and deliver the capability later. At the first Vaduz Space Dialogue, the message was clear: on secure connectivity, there is no time for that. Torsten Kriening on why federation should start now, and why Liechtenstein wants to host it.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-gray-space-cosco-spy-ships-how-space-can-help-until-the-west-weans-itself-off-maritime-dependency/ Tue, 29 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=78251
Written by Christophe Bosquillon
US allegations that COSCO vessels have supported Chinese intelligence collection expose a difficult Western dependency. Christophe Bosquillon examines how space-based maritime domain awareness could help manage the security risk without disrupting critical global supply chains.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-opinion-promises-at-dawn-the-international-space-summit/ Mon, 28 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=78248
Written by Gilles Rabin
The International Space Summit in Paris promised a new dawn for European space. Gilles Rabin looks beyond the political declarations to a NewSpace community increasingly forging its own alliances, contracts and path towards greater European independence.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-analysis-britain-stops-being-polite-in-space/ Fri, 25 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=78194 The first UK Space Power Conference, held in London on 23–24 September 2026, marked the moment Britain began treating space as terrain to be controlled. A new offensive space squadron, a "One Space" strategy and blunt calls to stop being polite: our analysis of what changed, what is still missing, and what to watch next.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-opinion-what-europe-should-do-now-in-space/ Fri, 18 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=77761
Written by K.-P. Ludwig
As the world's spacefaring nations gather in Paris, one narrative dominates: that Europe is falling behind, in the race to the Moon, in the race for launch vehicles, in the race for constellations. This narrative is convenient, because it postpones action to some future date. It is also wrong.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-recap-spin-europe-has-the-money-now-comes-the-hard-part/ Thu, 17 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=77807 Yesterday's summit argued about sovereignty. Today's asked whether European industry can actually build it. From the Space Innovation Summit in Paris: Isar's scale-first bet, the first IRIS² satellites under contract, and two serious investors disagreeing in public about whether Europe's problem is capital or customers.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-recap-sdss-day-one-sovereignty-is-not-self-sufficiency/ Wed, 16 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=77779 Europe wants sovereign space capability, and Europe needs capability now. Those two sentences do not point in the same direction. From day one of the Space Defense & Security Summit in Paris: Germany's bid to become Europe's integrator, IRIS² built for crisis, and an industry quietly redefining what sovereignty means.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-gray-space-the-factory-floor-is-the-frontline-what-nato-diana-reveals-about-the-real-bottleneck/ Wed, 16 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=77556
Written by Christophe Bosquillon
NATO DIANA has selected 15 companies for its Mission Track. But identifying promising technology is the easy part. Christophe Bosquillon examines the demand, supply-chain and workforce bottlenecks that could determine whether innovation ever reaches operational scale.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-analysis-paris-set-the-ambition-now-someone-has-to-build-the-plumbing/ Fri, 11 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=77562
Written by Torsten Kriening
The first International Space Summit produced 51 announcements, four declarations and a €20 billion headline that needs unpacking. But the most consequential outcome in Paris was not a contract - it was the set of demands Europe placed on itself in public, with ninety countries watching. Torsten Kriening on launch aggregation, the Bromo signal, Germany's offers, and the partnership question Europe cannot afford to get wrong.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-opinion-governing-a-crowded-orbit-requires-more-than-regulatory-approval/ Tue, 08 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=77348
Written by Masse Melvin
As Low Earth Orbit becomes increasingly crowded, regulatory approval alone is no longer enough. Masse Melvin argues that making orbital risks and trade-offs visible must become part of space governance.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-opinion-conference-season-is-coming-why-iac-2026-still-matters/ Thu, 27 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76445
Written by Judith Delany
As the global space sector prepares for another packed autumn conference season, IAC 2026 heads to Antalya at a remarkably fitting moment. Seventy-five years after the IAF was founded to keep dialogue alive across geopolitical divides, the Congress may once again matter as much for who meets in its corridors as for what happens on stage.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-analysis-how-iris2-became-a-market-rescue-programme-wrapped-in-the-language-of-european-strategic-autonomy/ Wed, 26 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76931
Written by K.-P. Ludwig
The IRIS2 programme was conceived to address a sincere and urgent strategic need: a sovereign European satellite communication infrastructure, independent of non-European providers, capable of serving both governmental and military requirements. The instrument chosen to deliver it, the SpaceRISE consortium and its concession model, was motivated by something definitely different: the industrial and national interests of a small number of actors seeking to stabilise their own market positions through public funding. The Rendezvous 1 agreement of August 2026, far from resolving this incompatibility, has institutionalised it. This analysis examines how, why, and with what consequences for European security.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-gray-space-orbital-data-centres-while-europe-debates-china-builds/ Tue, 25 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76512
Written by Christophe Bosquillon
China is moving rapidly from orbital data centre concepts to deployment, while Europe risks turning an early lead in orbital computing research into another strategic dependency. In Gray Space, Christophe Bosquillon examines ESPI’s warning, China’s coordinated approach and what Europe must do if technological sovereignty is to extend to computing in orbit.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-gray-space-usspacecom-2040-space-warfare-no-way-but-the-hard-way/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76504
Written by Christophe Bosquillon
USSPACECOM’s Space Warfighting Environment 2040 sees space as a permanently contested domain where resilience, interoperability and integration determine advantage. In the first instalment of Gray Space, Christophe Bosquillon examines what this doctrine means for allies – and why Europe’s ambitions for strategic autonomy may collide with Washington’s operational logic.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-opinion-europes-orbital-future-innovation-integration-or-irrelevance/ Tue, 18 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76438
Written by K.-P. Ludwig
SPRIND’s 2026 space strategy imagines a sovereign European orbital economy built on innovation and autonomy. But the U.S. Space Command’s SWE 2040 describes a very different future: a contested domain shaped by interoperability, resilience and military integration. Can Europe pursue both sovereignty and integration, or will it ultimately have to choose?]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-opinion-europes-space-leadership-enters-an-uncertain-autumn/ Tue, 11 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76324
Written by Gilles Rabin
As Europe prepares for a new political and conference season, questions about leadership, industrial strategy and long-term ambition are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. From lunar exploration to IRIS² and France's role within Europe, the coming months may prove decisive for the continent's space future.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-analysis-isu-three-weeks-on-whose-name-is-it/ Fri, 07 Aug 2026 09:01:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76303 Three weeks after the Strasbourg campus was liquidated, ISU's survival is no longer the question. Two efforts now claim its future on incompatible terms, a formal legal notice has replaced a cancelled meeting, and the city that holds the ground has not chosen. Meanwhile, half the affected students are improvising.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-feature-the-kriening-10-and-what-it-revealed/ Wed, 05 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76176 Ten posts, one a day, each built on an uncomfortable question about European space - and released while their author was on holiday. Torsten Kriening on what The Kriening 10 revealed, where he was corrected, and why the questions matter now.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-opinion-europes-space-dilemma-sovereignty-or-global-broker/ Tue, 04 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76091
Written by K.-P. Ludwig
Europe cannot outspend the United States or outscale China. Instead of chasing a two-horse race, this opinion argues that Europe's future influence may lie in combining strategic autonomy with global partnership, sustainability and rule-making.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/07/spacewatchgl-opinion-natos-halo-european-integration-or-intelligence-fragmentation/ Fri, 24 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=75911
Written by Christophe Bosquillon
NATO's new HALO initiative promises to connect allied military satellite networks, but where does it fit within Europe's already complex intelligence architecture? From APSS and bilateral intelligence exchanges to the EU's strategic autonomy ambitions, this analysis examines whether HALO represents deeper integration or another layer of fragmentation.]]>