The concept of security dilemma in the environment of outer space: the case of Galileo system

In the past 50 years, outer space has become an increasingly congested, contested, and competitive area. And it is the European Union that has emerged from this process as a new dominant space power. This recently growing power of the European Union in outer space is tightly connected to the pursuit of independent space applications such as the Galileo GNSS. Possession of a space asset such as autonomous GNSS is generally viewed as an indicator of political power; therefore, the Galileo project represents an enormous increase in the European Union’s capabilities, position, and power on a global scale. The steady growth of the importance of the outer space domain also naturally creates tensions even between actors that are traditionally viewed as allies. Therefore, this paper applies the well-established concept of security dilemma to the domain of outer space, establishes criteria for its assessment, and constructs a comprehensive modification of the concept - the space security dilemma - while also discussing previous approaches. It argues that outer space is prone to a strong security dilemma thanks to the offense shifted balance, the inherent dual-use character of space technologies, and the anarchic nature of the outer space environment, and applies it to the case of Galileo. The theoretical conclusions are tested on the case of the United States of America and the confrontation between GPS and Galileo, establishing European Union as a space security dilemma initiator.