Dr. Jessica West

Accusations have been loud at the UN’s #FirstCommittee discussion on #SpaceSecurity. But the quiet story is cooperation, as states maintain parallel progress on both legal and behavioural tracks.

Voting is today. Catch up here: reachingcriticalwill.org/images/docum...

Russia also pointed to Golden Dome during the second week of dedicated #SpaceSecurity discussion.

Details here: reachingcriticalwill.org/images/docum...

Nukes, interceptors, and a peace coalition: outer space diplomacy is heating up at the UN.

My summary of day one of the dedicated space security debate. Full version at the link. More to come this week.

reachingcriticalwill.org/images/docum...

Looking forward to key takeaways on this one.

Proud to see @ploughsharesca.bsky.social intern Kianna Low-A-Che deliver the joint civil society statement on #SpaceSecurity at #UNGA #FirstCommittee

A call to turn principles into practice to keep space peaceful for all. Big thanks to those who crafted.

reachingcriticalwill.org/images/docum...

At #UNGA #FirstCommittee, #Italy proposed a legally binding ban on destructive #ASAT tests, turning restraint into law and bridging legal + normative divides in #SpaceSecurity.

Also calls for equity and inclusivity in governing space for all humankind. 🌍🚀

reachingcriticalwill.org/images/docum...

I needed this today. Thank you.

Space Is a Human Domain (discussing governance challenges with Esther Brimmer and Jessica West) Cooperative use of space is essential for a sustainable future on Earth.

A lot of my work on space security leans toward the gloomy side 😅 — so this conversation with Dr. Esther Brimmer for CIGI felt like a breath of fresh air.

We talked about why space is a human domain and new governance opportunities (and challenges of course!).

🎧 www.cigionline.org/pp/space-is-...

🛰️ #SpaceSecurity is a big focus at the #UN #FirstCommittee.

During Week 1:
💣 Nuclear and tech entanglement is reshaping deterrence.
🚀 Restraint in the space arms race is slipping—“nearing the point of no return.”

More via Reaching Critical Will (p. 23) 👇
reachingcriticalwill.org/images/docum...

Absent Voices, Fragile Diplomacy: Rethinking the ‘End of NGOs’ - Project Ploughshares Geneva, July 2025 In the chilled UN meeting room, on the final day of the Open-Ended Working Group on the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS), the chair invited civil society to speak. T...

They keep declaring the death of NGOs. But we’re not gone, we’re adapting.

Civil society is still here, still shaping, still necessary.

I dig into what this means for diplomacy in my latest piece for the Ploughshares Monitor: ploughshares.ca/absent-voice...

We’re Not in the Peaceful Uses Era Anymore The fog of peace has lifted — and what we see in orbit is distortion, arms racing, and risk.

From Geneva to Brussels, the warnings are clear: unpredictability, arms racing, and risks that reach far beyond orbit.

📰 New on On Fragile Orbits: onfragileorbits.substack.com/p/were-not-i...

It was pointless 20 years ago. Now it's absurd 😅

🚀 #GoldenDome: what’s it about?

Tomorrow I’ll be online with Sam Wilson + International Student/Young Pugwash to talk through the nuts, bolts, dilemmas & dollars.

Plenty of discussion time. Bring your questions and maybe a calculator.

Register: britishpugwash.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?...

I like this news.

What's it like training for a moon mission? Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen gives us the scoop | CBC News If all goes as planned, early next year four astronauts will blast off on a mission that’s been a long time coming: a return to the moon. Canada's Jeremy Hansen takes us through what he's been doing t...

🚀 The countdown is on for #ArtemisII.

Jeremy Hansen jokes about training for space death. Beneath the humour is truth: human spaceflight IS life & death.

Astronauts are explorers and pioneers of human health, a part of the human story in space worth appreciating.

🔗 www.cbc.ca/news/science...

Space Cafe Radio - From the Lunar Surface to Global Diplomacy with Dr Jessica West Podcast Episode · Space Café Radio · 18/09/2025 · 36m

Also available in podcast form: podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/s...

Space Café Radio - with Dr. Jessica West - SpaceWatch.GLOBAL Join us as we sit down with Dr Jessica West, recently back from the Outer Space Security Conference in Geneva.

Space no longer feels like the era of “peaceful uses.”

At UNIDIR’s #OS25 we tackled lunar risks, commercial pressures, youth voices, and unpredictability in orbit.

I’m still holding onto optimism. Diplomacy can move us forward.

🎙️ @spacewatch.bsky.social

spacewatch.global/2025/09/spac...

Excellent new piece out by @jessicawestphd.bsky.social on #spacesecurity

Space Security in Geneva: Between Constraint and Convergence How UN diplomats working to prevent an arms race in outer space are inching forward through duplication, silence and small steps.

The UN open-ended working group on the prevention of an arms race in outer space is continuing with a two-track structure focusing on legally binding obligations & voluntary measures, a compromise keeping all at the table, write @vsamsondc.bsky.social & @jessicawestphd.bsky.social for CIGI 9/10

We are quite the crew.

Space Security in Geneva: Between Constraint and Convergence How UN diplomats working to prevent an arms race in outer space are inching forward through duplication, silence and small steps.

Constraint is survival.
Convergence is progress.

That is the message in my new CIGI piece with @vsamsondc.bsky.social reflecting on the #PAROS #OEWG. Convergence needs is also a theme at #OS25 Day Two, touching on cislunar to strategic and commercial space.

🔗 www.cigionline.org/articles/spa...

Trump seeks to rebrand Department of Defense as Department of War The US president has sought to refocus the department on "warfighting" and a "warrior ethos".

“Department of War.” Names aren’t just labels; they set the logic of governance. Shifting from defense to war makes conflict the organizing structure, just as calling space a warfighting domain primes us to govern for conflict, not cooperation.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Not the plan, but def a plan.

And feel the good beachy vibes, at the tail end of summer (in this hemisphere).

Thank you. Not a new idea but thinking about "Cs" gave me an opportunity to start writing on it.

From Sea to C: A Covenant of C's for Space If orbit isn’t an ocean, what rules should guide it? The answer may lie in a new covenant of C's to navigate its perils.

Listening to the UN #OEWG on #PAROS from Nova Scotia, I thought I heard: “there is no C in space.”

They meant sea. But what’s really missing are the C’s: care, communication, consent, clarity, constraints.

More in my latest On Fragile Orbit: onfragileorbits.substack.com/p/from-sea-t...

Golden Dome Explained: Ambition, Reality, Risk - Project Ploughshares In January 2025, US President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14186, directing the development of a sweeping new missile defence system called Golden Dome. While still in the early stages, the pla...

9/ 📄 For background check out (via
@ploughsharesca.bsky.social and Kathryn Barrett):

ploughshares.ca/golden-dome-...

8/ This path may be moving forward,but how we engage still matters.

Canada has choices to make about the kind of partner we want to be and the kind of security we want to build.

7/ Canada’s contribution to continental defence should be guided by:
🛡️ Resilience
🤝 Responsibility
⚖️ Restraint
…not illusions of invulnerability.

6/ Leverage diplomacy, not just hardware

✅ We’ve long been a leader in arms control and strategic risk reduction. That role is needed now more than ever.