Looking ahead, the continued presence among all leading actors in space of strong incentives to keep space weapons-free supports the case for the continued maintenance of core cooperative agreements (such as the 1967 Outer Space Treaty) and the prospects for the strengthening of the current foundations of space security, either via rules of the road or more formal arrangements (such as a debris treaty, rather than a voluntary convention).

Notably, in other recent areas of human activity affected by collective "bads," such as acid rain, carbon emissions, and ozone depletion, enhanced international cooperation is emerging, slowly convincing skeptical nations to get on board, largely out of their own, long-term self-interests. National populations in many areas are demanding such collective action, as are a host of international organizations, non-profit groups, and even a growing number of private corporations.

In space, similarly, there are good reasons to believe that we will witness the steady growth of international attention to a host of emerging "environmental management" problems, including orbital debris, space traffic management, radio frequency allocation, and geostationary orbital crowding. Growing recognition of the shared incentives among space actors to cooperate (or at least coordinate) in addressing these problems could, in turn, have salutary effects on military competition, helping to divert it from past historical trends toward direct conflict.

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Moltz, James Clay. "Protecting Safe Access to Space: Lessons from the First 50 Years of Space Security." Space Policy. Vol. 23 (November 2007): 199-205. [ 12 quotes ] [ page 204 ]