West European Integration and the Militarization of Outer Space, 1945–70

Abstract

The stereotypical view that the European space program emerged in the early Cold War as a distinctively civilian enterprise is not validated by analysis of the rationales that motivated the key actors. There was an important sense in which the creation of ESRO and ELDO in 1962 was a response to a broad European desire to construct new integrationist structures that would consolidate Western Europe as a peaceful security community leaving behind its warlike past. This was reflected in international politics, in the speculations of European science fiction, and in the initiation of efforts to create a European space program. At the same time, however, the great power aspirations of Britain and France, and the desire of other states to build industrial capacity in the dual-use capabilities of space technology, meant that while European states did not pursue space weaponization, they did consciously develop the technological capacity for space militarization.