The politics of space law in a post Cold War era: Understanding regime change

Outer space development has experienced three distinct periods of regime change. This dissertation discusses the distinct political and ideological characteristics of each historical epoch. It demonstrates how the United States has been a trendsetter in each epochal change. However, it focuses on the most recent epoch, the third epoch, occurring in the post-Cold War era. A Gramscian analysis is used to examine political actions, key actors and mechanisms influencing change within the outer space development regime across three epochs. An emphasis is placed on the third epoch because it involves new actors, new debates, new policies and new industries, such as space tourism, space settlement and space mining. Gramscian concepts such as hegemony, historic bloc, organic intellectuals and consent are used to explain the politics of space law involved with each period of outer space development regime change. I argue that a Gramscian analysis provides a more adequate explanatory framework to explain outer space development regime change than the mainstream theories international relations theories since a Gramscian analysis best describes the influence of new private-sector actors and private capital on outer space development regime change. This dissertation also explains the historical circumstances existing in the post-Cold War, including the rise in dominance of free market ideology and globalization, and how these factors have further influenced the hyper-privatization of outer space development in the third epoch.