Dr. Jessica West

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.

5/ Push for strategic restraint:

✅ Canada use its role to push back on destabilizing proposals like space-based interceptors and advocate for responsible behaviour in orbit.

4/ There ARE ways forward for Canada:

✅ Invest in defence by detection
Our real strength is in early warning, surveillance, and situational awareness, especially across the Arctic.

3/ This isn’t just about defence, it’s about strategic stability. Systems like Golden Dome are:

❌ Expensive
❌ Unproven under real-world stress
❌ Known to fuel arms races rather than prevent them

2/ Missile defence sounds reassuring.

But let’s ask:
🔸 Does it actually make us safer or just more expensive?
🔸 Are we buying deterrence or buying into escalation?

🚨 Canada has lifted restrictions on joining missile defence. Talk of participating in the U.S.-led Golden Dome is gaining momentum.

What does this mean, and what should Canada do next? 🧵

Still digesting last week’s #ParosOEWG session, but wanted to share the CIGI submission on emerging tech in space.

AI, cyber, quantum tools are reshaping space. Principles alone aren’t enough: we need the “missing middle” of real-world practice.

🛰️ Link: meetings.unoda.org/meeting/7486...

5/ As the OEWG debates how to prevent conflict and weapons in space, we need to ask:
🛑 Security for whom?
🧭 What harms are we overlooking?
🌍 Whose voices are still missing from the room?

4/ We found that threats in space—whether destructive or subtle—often reinforce inequalities here on Earth.

And that vulnerability in space doesn’t track with how many satellites a country has in orbit.

3/ We looked at how different identities and communities experience the risks and benefits of space systems.

The harms aren't just about weapons. Many are invisible, uneven, and felt most by those already at the margins.