The Space Diplomacy Council
Why Space Diplomacy
Orbit has become critical infrastructure for every nation on Earth
Communications, navigation, finance, agriculture, and disaster response all run through space. Yet the rules governing orbit were written for an era of two spacefaring powers and a few hundred satellites, not for tens of thousands of spacecraft and powerful commercial operators. The Council gives this fast-changing domain a neutral, multilateral home.
Advise
Governments and international organizations
Convene
Diplomats and space leaders across divides
Publish
Analysis for the Global Report
Build Capacity
Space expertise in Public and Private Sectors
What is Space Diplomacy?
Space diplomacy is the conduct of international relations with, about, and through outer space, by states and non-state actors, to keep orbit safe and usable, negotiate the rules of new frontiers, and ensure that space remains, in law and in practice, the province of all humankind.
Space diplomacy is at once the oldest and the most outgrown branch of tech diplomacy. Its founding instrument, the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, remains one of diplomacy’s great achievements, and the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space has carried the field for more than sixty years. But the domain those rules were written for no longer exists. Commercial constellations now account for most active satellites, more than fifty nations have joined new frameworks such as the Artemis Accords, lunar programs are multiplying, and orbital congestion has turned debris from a technical concern into a governance crisis. The treaties endure; the world they governed has changed.
Building on this emerging scholarship, and applying the WAT framework for tech diplomacy developed by the Tech Diplomacy Global Institute, our definition spans three connected dimensions:
Diplomacy with space actors. Diplomatic engagement with the full ecosystem operating in orbit: space agencies, satellite operators and launch providers, insurers and investors, the scientific community, and international organizations. In space, commercial actors now outnumber states, and diplomacy must engage wherever capability and responsibility reside.
Diplomacy about space. The negotiation of the rules, norms, and institutions governing activity in orbit and beyond: space traffic coordination, debris mitigation, spectrum and orbital slots, lunar and resource governance, and the prevention of conflict in space.
Diplomacy through space capability. The strategic dimension of space in statecraft: how launch capability, satellite services, and Earth observation extend national influence, how connectivity from orbit reshapes development partnerships, and how space cooperation builds alliances on Earth.
Unlike AI or quantum, space diplomacy does not lack institutions. It lacks institutions that match the pace of the domain. Consensus bodies deliberate in years while thousands of satellites launch annually and near-miss events multiply. The Space Diplomacy Council exists to help close that gap: a neutral, multilateral body where governments, international organizations, researchers, and industry keep the governance of space moving at the speed of space itself.
The Challenge
Twentieth-century rules for a twenty-first-century orbit
The space governance challenge is not the absence of law. It is that the law predates the world it must now govern, and the mechanisms for updating it move slower than the domain changes.
Three tensions define the current moment:
The governance lag. There is no binding international regime for space traffic management, no agreed rules for debris removal, and no framework matching the reality of mega-constellations. Voluntary guidelines exist, but voluntary compliance thins precisely as congestion grows.
The congestion crisis. Active satellites have multiplied several times over in a decade, and orbital debris threatens every operator. Each collision or anti-satellite test worsens the environment for all, raising the risk of cascading failures in the orbits the world depends on most.
The orbital divide. Spectrum and orbital slots go disproportionately to those who arrive first, and the rules of new frontiers, from lunar operations to space resources, are being shaped by a small group of spacefaring states and companies. Nations without launch capability risk inheriting an orbit, and a Moon, governed without them.
The Council’s work addresses all three: modernizing governance, protecting the orbital environment, and widening the circle of nations that shape the rules.
The Council’s Mandate
What the Council is charged to do
The Council operates under a two-year renewable mandate from the Institute; the current mandate runs from 2026 to 2028. Within it, the Space Diplomacy Council brings together space agency leaders, satellite industry executives, international lawyers, and diplomats to:
- Advance international cooperation on space traffic management and debris mitigation, turning voluntary guidelines into workable practice as orbital congestion accelerates
- Strengthen norms for responsible behavior in space, including the security of satellite infrastructure and restraint from actions that degrade the orbital environment
- Support emerging space nations in building space diplomacy capacity, so that orbital governance reflects all regions rather than only established spacefaring powers
- Prepare the diplomacy of new frontiers, from lunar activity and space resources to commercial stations, before facts in space outrun rules on Earth
- Contribute the Council’s analysis to the Global Technology Diplomacy Report and support the space curriculum of the Tech Diplomacy Global Executive Program
Focus Areas
Where the Council concentrates its work
For its 2026–2028 mandate, the Council concentrates its work on five focus areas:
01. Space traffic and debris diplomacy.
The path from voluntary guidelines to functioning coordination: data sharing between operators and states, collision-avoidance practice, and the diplomacy of debris remediation.
02. Satellite infrastructure security.
Protecting the space systems every nation depends on, from ground stations to constellations, in close coordination with the Institute’s Cyber Diplomacy Council.
03. Space capacity building.
Helping emerging space nations develop national space strategies, regulatory frameworks, and trained space negotiators, in coordination with TDGI’s Tech Ambassador Initiative.
04. The diplomacy of new frontiers.
Lunar governance, space resources, and commercial space stations: how the next chapter of space law gets written, and who is at the table when it does.
05. Commercial space diplomacy.
Engaging satellite operators, launch providers, and investors as diplomatic actors: how governments work with companies whose decisions shape the orbital environment for everyone.
HOW WE WORK
The Council convenes its annual plenary at the Tech Diplomacy Global Forum in Paris and meets virtually throughout the year. Its members contribute to the Global Technology Diplomacy Report, advise governments through TDGI’s advisory services, and support the quantum curriculum of the Tech Diplomacy Global Executive Program.
Each year, the Council selects a small number of priority questions and produces practical outputs: briefings that a foreign ministry can act on, frameworks a negotiator can use, and recommendations that connect the worlds of quantum science and diplomatic practice.
Who should join the Council
Membership in the Space Diplomacy Council is by application and invitation. We welcome candidates who bring one or more of the following:
- Senior diplomatic or government experience with space portfolios, such as space agency leadership, national space coordinators, and senior negotiators
- Recognized expertise in space law, space policy, or orbital operations
- Leadership experience in satellite, launch, or space infrastructure companies with international engagement
- Perspectives from regions underrepresented in global space debates
Council members serve in their personal capacity for a renewable two-year term, aligned with the Council’s mandate. The Council maintains geographic, gender, and sectoral balance as a matter of principle: the province of all humankind cannot be governed by a handful of capitals alone.
Applications for the 2026–2028 mandate are open until 30 September 2026.
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