Space – Exploring NATO’s Final Frontier

Space is an increasingly important domain for the security and prosperity of the Transatlantic area. The 2022 NATO’s Strategic Concept has recognised this reality, fully integrating Space into the alliance’s posture. The use of Space has greatly enhanced the ability of NATO and its members to anticipate or respond to threats with greater speed, effectiveness and precision. However, Space is becoming an increasingly contested, congested and competitive domain. A multi-purpose use of Space, a growing number of actors and assets, as well as rapid advances in technology have created new opportunities – but also new risks, vulnerabilities and threats to allied security and defence. This requires NATO to reflect on how it could maintain its strategic edge in Space as in the other connected domains. Taking that into account, on 10–11 November 2022 the Allied Command Transformation (ACT) of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) and the University of Bologna held a high-level workshop exploring NATO’s role in Space, whose main findings are summarised in this report.