Tortoise the Titan: Private Entities as Geoeconomic Tools in Outer Space

Like the terrestrial international politics after the end of the Cold War, outer space is shifting from the utilisation of geopolitical tools only to the increasing reliance on geoeconomic means of power competition. This article reconceptualizes the New Space era and the heating geoeconomic competition by adding into consideration the Mahanian view on the sustainability of operations in non-land domains by authoritarian and democratic regimes. The article responds to the question of the difference between the approach to the private space companies in the West and in China and of sustainability of the different trajectories taken. It concludes that the Western more indirect model is likely to become more sustainable to the Chinese more intrusive utilisation of geoeconomic tools.