Spltting the Stars:U.S-china Space Rivlry and its impact on Global Governance
Pas de vignette d'image disponible
Fichiers
Date
2026-07-07
Auteurs
Nom de la revue
ISSN de la revue
Titre du volume
Éditeur
Résumé
This thesis examines how the intensifying U.S.-China rivalry in outer space is transforming the domain from a cooperative global common into a bifurcated governance order, and what this transformation implies for the future of international governance. Guided by the question of whether strategic competition is producing fragmentation, dual orders, or managed coexistence, the study employs a mixed-methods approach combining quantitative indicators, content analysis of primary policy documents, structural network mapping, and elite interviews with Professor Everett C. Dolman, Professor John Hickman, Dr. Juliana Süss, and Rebecca Levy from NASA.
The theoretical framework integrates power-transition theory, liberal institutionalism, complexity theory, and constructivist and structural-power approaches to explain the structural pressures of hegemonic challenge, the limits of legacy governance regimes, and the normative contest through which each power seeks to constitute the frameworks within which all other actors must operate.
The empirical analysis demonstrates that the United States and China operate two structurally incompatible models of space power, one distributing authority through institutional pluralism and public-private partnership, the other concentrating it through Military-Civil Fusion and infrastructural diplomacy, manifesting in competing governance constellations: GPS versus BeiDou, ISS versus Tiangong, the Artemis Accords versus the ILRS.
The central hypothesis is supported as a directional claim, bounded by the contingencies, the analysis identifies: bifurcation is underway, structurally driven, and increasingly path-dependent, yet it remains incomplete and, in important respects, reversible. The implications raise fundamental questions about multilateral governance resilience, the agency of smaller states, and the institutional imagination required to govern a domain whose strategic stakes now rival any other arena of great-power competition.
Description
Mots-clés
Astropolitics, U.S.-China Space Rivalry, Global Space Governance, Artemis Accords, Outer Space Treaty, Cislunar Space, Global Commons