摘要：Distant heavens have captured human imagi- nation for millennia, but not until just over 50 years ago were man-made objects-and, later. men and women-sent into space. Since then, the world has become increasingly dependent on space power for everyday utilities, management of glohal commerce, and national security af-fairs, as well as domestic stability and prosperity. But humankind's ability to venture into spacecreated a complex dilemma for its"proper"use. Optimists view space as a global commons that should be free from human divisiveness and ac-cessible by all. Pessimists-and perhaps pragma- tists-on the other hand, predict that space even- tually will be prone to weaponization, conflict, and other sorts of misuse, as were land, sea, and air previously. These competing views set the stage for critical analysis on the topic. The differ- ing perspectives also point out that space is in- extricably tied to politics in the rising tide of glo- balization in the twenty-first century.
