Klinger Publishes Journal Article on Geopolitics and Outer Space
Julie Klinger, Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, recently published a journal article on the intersection of environmental geopolitics and outer space.
Klinger’s article, entitled “Environmental Geopolitics and Outer Space,” was published in the journal Geopolitics on March 20, 2019.
From the abstract of the article:
The cultural, legal, budgetary, infrastructural, and logistical processes through which the contemporary space race unfolds have measurable environmental footprints on Earth and in outer space. The question of where these footprints fall is arbitrated by larger questions of geopolitical power and vulnerability, which means that human engagement with outer space is also a question of environmental justice. On Earth, environmental (in)justice unfolds on multiple scales: local and stratospheric emissions from space launches, the placement of outer space related infrastructure in so-called peripheral places, and the role of power in determining whether the use of such infrastructure aids socio-environmentally constructive or destructive practices. Beyond Earth, the environmental geopolitics are likewise multiscalar, manifesting in contemporary pollution issues such as orbital debris and conservation debates such as planetary protection protocols. The environmental geopolitics of Earth and outer space are inextricably linked by the spatial politics of privilege and the imposition of sacrifice – among people, places, and institutions. This paper explores the concept of outer space environments through classical, critical, environmental, and feminist geopolitical theories.
Julie Michelle Klinger, PhD, specializes in development, environment, and security politics in Latin America and China in comparative and global perspective. Her recent book Rare Earth Frontiers: From Terrestrial Subsoils to Lunar Landscapes (Cornell University Press in Fall 2017) received the 2017 Meridian Award from the American Association of Geographers for its “unusually important contribution to advancing the art and science of geography.”