One Small Step: Women, Peace and Security in Outer Space

Along with land, sea, air and cyber, the 2023 Defence Strategic Review (DSR) recognised space as a fifth operational domain for defence and national security. Yet precisely because space technologies are critical to all global military operations today, space systems are increasingly under threat from interference or targeting. The space domain is therefore not only a support domain, but a strategic domain unto itself, and it is in Australia’s national interest to ensure the success of international space security initiatives. This includes ensuring minimum impact on civilians from deliberate
disruptions to space systems. Applying a gender lens is a necessary component of this, which requires understanding the specific impacts on women and girls of deploying space technologies for military purposes, and of targeting space systems.