Space Citizen: The Gap Between You, Me and the Governance of Space

Existing space governance institutions and mechanisms were built on a twentieth-century reality, when states were the main actors. Today, the number and variety of space actors and human activities in space, the dual-use nature of most space services and the vulnerability of civilians in the event of a loss of space-based services create wicked complexities in space governance.

In this paper, Cassandra Steer argues that we all have a vested interest in the good governance of the space environment and our impact upon it. Existing notions of the “global citizen” and “planetary citizen” should be expanded to the “space citizen,” so that we can activate our own individual participation in new governance approaches that are multi-stakeholder, multi-domain, inclusive and intergenerational.

The need for transparency is often emphasized in international governance discussions on military artificial intelligence (AI) systems. However, transparency is a complex and multi-faceted concept, encompassing dimensions such as explainability, interpretability, understandability, predictability and reliability. The degree to which these aspects are reflected in state approaches to ensuring transparent and accountable systems remains unclear and requires further investigation.

In this paper, Branka Marijan examines the feasibility of achieving transparency in military AI systems, considers the associated challenges and proposes pathways to develop effective transparency mechanisms. Transparency efforts are one critical part of the broader governance and regulatory framework that needs to be developed for military applications of AI and autonomy.

Canada has always had an uneasy relationship with patents. Today, for example, despite being a leader in artificial intelligence (AI) technology, Canada has little control over the patents its own largely publicly funded research has produced. Foreign companies take that academic knowledge and “sell it back to Canadians for pennies on the dollar.”

E. Richard Gold writes in this op-ed first published in The Globe and Mail that Canada must respond to US tariffs “with all economic weapons at its disposal, a key armament of which is intellectual property such as patents. This country has the right, under both Canadian and international law, to effectively suspend patent rights held by US-controlled companies in key sectors, such as pharmaceuticals and AI. Doing so would put tremendous pressure on the Trump administration.”

“Not surprisingly, the prophecy of gloom and doom surrounding potential tariffs and the large negative economic impact that Canada would face has dominated economic and political discussions. The common response is to retaliate, drawing upon the playbook that was used during the previous Trump administration.” But, Robert Fay writes, such tariffs “defy economic logic and are beggar-thy-neighbour policies that will only result in harm in both Canada and the United States.”

Offering a five-point plan, Fay says there is still much that Canada can and must do to create the economic conditions to drive Canadian prosperity.

The Digital Policy Hub is seeking applications for the 2025–2026 academic year cohort.

In partnership with universities, governments and the private sector, the Hub at CIGI offers a collaborative space for emerging scholars and innovative thinkers from the social, natural and applied sciences to share and develop research on the evolution and governance of transformative technologies. Deadline to apply is March 3, 2025, 11:59 p.m. EST.

Interested? Register for the February 6 or February 13 online information session and find out more about the program and the application process here.