RAND Europe Researcher: Space Militarisation Cannot Be Reduced to a Civilian-or-Military Label

France 24 host Erin Ogunkeye spoke with Mélusine Lebret, a researcher in the Defence, Security & Justice research group at RAND Europe, about the accelerating militarisation of space and how this trend should be understood.

According to Lebret, it is a mistake to approach the issue simply by asking whether a given satellite is civilian, military, or already a "weapon." The reality, she argued, is more complex: a system built for purely civilian purposes can in principle be repurposed to serve military capabilities, which means the line between civilian and military space infrastructure is increasingly blurred.

Cooperation still required

Lebret stressed that militarisation itself does not eliminate the need for cooperation between states. Even as countries increasingly prepare for potential competition — and possibly conflict — in space, they remain structurally dependent on one another to keep the space domain usable at all.

She described this as the defining tension of the emerging space-security order: states are positioning themselves for rivalry and possible confrontation while simultaneously needing to preserve cooperative arrangements that prevent the collapse of shared space infrastructure or uncontrolled escalation.

Lebret's analysis suggests that policymakers and the international community will need to balance security concerns with the necessity of maintaining shared rules of engagement in space, since no single state can unilaterally guarantee the long-term sustainability of the space environment.