(Page 15 of 26) - Taking Sovereignty Out of This World: Space Weaponization and the Production of Late-Modern Political Subjects authored by Duvall, Raymond. and Havercroft, Jonathan.

communications satellites. This industry has expanded dramatically in the last two
decades. Total revenues for commercial space-related industries in 1980 were 2.1 billion
dollars; by 2003 this figure had expanded to $91 billion and it was expected to increase at
least as rapidly into the foreseeable future (SpaceSecurity.org, 2005). On the economic
front, space control is about determining who has access to this new economy. Positions
in orbit for satellites are a new form of “real estate,” and by controlling access to outer
space the U.S. would be forcibly appropriating the orbits around Earth, thereby placing
the U.S. in a position to determine which governments and corporations could use space.
In effect, orbital slots around earth would be turned into private property.

This process of primitive accumulation is of importance to our concerns in two ways.
First, the doctrine of space control represents the extension of U.S. sovereignty into outer
space. In addition to being a clear violation of international law, it reinforces the
constitutive effect identified in the previous section on missile defense, namely to re-
inscribe the “hard shell” borders of the U.S., which are now extended to include the
“territory” of outer space. This simultaneously constitutes the exclusive sovereignty of
the U.S., while displacing the sovereignty of other states.

Second, space control bears significantly on the production of political subjectivities.
The original Star Trek series would begin with the voice of Captain Kirk describing space
as the “final frontier”. While presenting the exploration of space as a largely peaceful
enterprise, the TV show was also drawing upon its viewers’ “memories” of the “western
frontier” of 19

century U.S. expansion. At least since the writings of Frederick Turner,

there has been the notion that the frontier represents the well-spring of U.S. ingenuity,
freedom, and creativity. According to Turner, because as they expanded westward
settlers in the U.S. had to continually adapt to a new environment, they became
increasingly “American”. The theme of the frontier as essential for American identity
has had a significant discursive role in U.S. imperialist expansion (Turner, 1962).
Although Turner concluded that the American frontier had closed by the late 1890s,
many Americans, most notably Theodore Roosevelt, concluded at just that time that in
order to maintain the exceptional American identity new frontiers had to be opened
overseas. The notion of frontiers, then, has been integral to the U.S. imperialist project
since its outset. The doctrine of space control, seen in this light, is simply an extension of
the imperial logic. By expanding into and taking control of the “final frontier” the U.S. is
continuing to renew an exceptional—an exclusive—identity by adapting itself to the
harsh realities of a new environment.

So, the doctrine of space control can be read as extending U.S. sovereignty into orbit.
While a clear violation of international law, this de facto expansion of U.S. sovereignty
will have two effects. First, it enables a process of primitive accumulation, whereby
orbital spaces around earth are removed from the commons initially established by the
Outer Space Treaty, and places them under the control of the U.S. for use and perhaps
even ownership by businesses sympathetic to U.S. interests. The U.S. becomes even
more than it is now the state for global capitalism, the global capitalist state. Second, this
doctrine of space control is part of the ongoing re-production of American subjects as
“Americans”. Embedded within space control is the notion that space is a new frontier.
Following the Turner thesis and Roosevelt’s doctrine of imperialist expansion, there has
long been a drive for Americans to seek out new frontiers as a way of renewing the