Â鶹AV

Â鶹AV.CA / Institute of Air & Space Law / Projects / Strategic Space Law Course

Course Lecturers

The Strategic Space Law is taught by experts and scholars who are recognised for their expertise in space law and strategic uses of outer space.

Course convener:

Course lecturers:

Course Coordinator:

  • Mr. Kuan-Wei Chen (Â鶹AV, Canada)

Almudena Azcárate Ortega

Almudena Azcárate Ortega is the lead Space Security Researcher at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR). She has published widely and briefed UN Member States on the topics of space security law and policy and has presented her research in multiple fora. She has led UNIDIR’s participation in the UN Open-Ended Working Group on Reducing Space Threats Through Norms, Rules and Principles of Responsible Behaviour, established pursuant to UN General Assembly resolution 76/231. Prior to joining UNIDIR, Almudena was a Research Assistant at Georgetown University Law Center, where she is currently a doctoral candidate. She holds an LL.M. in National Security Law from the same institution, where she was the recipient of Georgetown’s Thomas Bradbury Chetwood, S.J. Prize for the most distinguished academic performance in the programme. She received her LL.B. from the University of Navarra, Spain.

Roy Balleste

Roy Balleste is Director of the Dolly & Homer Hand Law Library. He has been working in law libraries for twenty years and in administration for fifteen years. Professor Balleste completed his doctorate degree (J.S.D.) in Intercultural Human Rights, analyzing internet governance policy, including its history, actors, and institutions. While completing the LL.M. at the Institute of Air and Space Law, Â鶹AV, Balleste researched and wrote about the crossroads of cybersecurity, rules of engagement and space Law. He was the 2017 recipient of the Nicolas Mateesco Matte Space Law Prize. Professor Balleste is a member of the International Institute of Space Law (IISL), including its Cyberspace Law Working Group.

Professor Balleste teaches cyberlaw and cybersecurity law and policy. He has concentrated his scholarship and advocacy in the areas associated with the regulatory structure of the Internet, cybersecurity, outer space law, and cybersecurity in outer space. In November of 2017, Balleste participated at the United Nations High-level Forum on Space as a driver for socio-economic sustainable development. In his presentation, Balleste addressed the connection of cybersecurity and satellite communications. Balleste also participated in the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (UN IGF) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2007 and Vilnius, Lithuania 2010. In October of 2012, Balleste participated—at the invitation of the U.S. Air Force Research Institute—in the second cyberpower conference at the Maxwell’s Officer Training School.

Professor Balleste is a member of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ Noncommercial Users Stakeholder Group (ICANN-NCSG) and the Noncommercial Users Constituency (NCUC) of the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO). In 2015, Roman and Littlefield published two of his books: Internet Governance: Origins, Current Issues, and Future Possibilities, and Cybersecurity: Human Rights in the Age of Cyberveillance. He also published Law Librarianship in the Twenty-first century in 2013 (Rowman & Littlefield, Second Edition, first edition 2007).

Most recently, Balleste earned a certificate in cybersecurity (the intersection of policy and technology) from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Executive Education and a certificate in blockchain strategy from the SaĂŻd Business School, University of Oxford.

Andrea Buitrago Carranza

Maj Andrea B. Carranza is a Legal Officer at the Office of the Judge Advocate General (OJAG) of the Canadian Armed Forces, and a member of the Law Society of Ontario. She obtained her law degrees in 2016 from Â鶹AV (BCL/JD). In 2020 Maj Carranza obtained an LL.M. in Air & Space Law from the Â鶹AV Institute of Air and Space Law (IASL), and she is currently a PhD Candidate at the Â鶹AV IASL. Her PhD research explores the protection of human rights for the first humans present on the Moon. Maj Carranza also holds a Master in Public Administration (with concentration in Governance of International Institutions) from Queen’s University (2011) and an Honours in Political Science from Bishop’s University (2010).

Maj Carranza joined the OJAG after having worked at the legal offices of three Specialized Agencies of the United Nations between 2016 and 2018: the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Rome, and the International Civil Aviation Organization of the United Nations (ICAO) in Montreal. Maj Carranza was also a legal clerk at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, assisting the president of the Court.

Within the OJAG, Maj Carranza has spent most of her time as part of the Directorate of Strategic and Operational Law, which is the directorate within the Operational Law division that provides strategic legal advice to the Chief of Defence Staff and the Minister of National Defence. In this role she has been the lead advisor for Air Space Incidents (AIS), NORAD, use of force in international operations, national authorities to deploy, and also provided advice and legal support on Space Law matters.

Gilles Doucet

Gilles Doucet is an independent space security consultant, President of Spectrum Space Security Inc. and technical consultant for ABH Aerospace LLC.

Doucet’s consultancy focuses on the convergence of satellite technology, military space applications, space governance and international space security cooperation. Services encompass space security research, policy advice, education and training.

Mr Doucet is the Technical Lead for the “Manual of International Law Applicable to Military Use of Outer Space” (MILAMOS) international space law project, a member of the Legal Advisory Council of For All Moonkind and a member of the International Institute of Space Law. Doucet is also visiting faculty to the Cybersecurity LLM program at St Thomas University School of Law, in Miami, Florida, instructing in Satellite and Space Security.

Prior to founding Spectrum Security Inc. Mr Doucet spent 35 years as a research scientist with the Canadian Department of National Defence conducting studies and assessments on space technology, military applications, and advising on space policy, international cooperation and defence diplomacy.

Mr Doucet’s education includes Bachelors and Masters degrees in Engineering from Ottawa University and a Graduate Certificate in Air and Space Law from Â鶹AV’s Institute of Air and Space Law.

Stuart Eves

Stuart Eves has recently founded his own space consultancy company, SJE Space, after spending 14 years with Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) and 16 years with the UK Ministry Of Defence.

During his time with the MOD, Stuart initiated the TopSat satellite programme, which established a new world record for “resolution per mass of satellite”, and previously formed part of the space gallery at the Science Museum in London.

He has recently published Space Traffic Control, a book which describes the measures needed to maintain the space environment and protect satellites from both natural hazards and man-made threats such as space debris.

Stuart has an MSc in Astrophysics, a PhD in constellation design, and has been a fellow of both the Royal Astronomical Society and the British Interplanetary Society for more than 25 years. He takes an active interest in all things space.

Clifford Fletcher-Jones

Clifford Fletcher-Jones is a retired Royal Air Force wing commander who has over 14 years of experience in military space operations and has been mission-qualified in 10 operational space roles. He has served as the 92 Squadron Space Tactics Officer, the Air and Space Warfare School’s leading Instructor on the UK’s Qualified Space Instructor’s Course and was the first UK national to serve as Deputy Director Space Forces, US European Command. During his time as HQ UK Space Command’s Assistant Chief of Staff, he advanced the Ministry of Defence’s Strategic Effects Management Process to include space domain operations. He has been the Chief of the Air Staff Portal Research Fellow at King’s College, London, where he developed an anthrocosmological space power theory, and a US Space Force Shriever Space Scholar at the Air University, US. He holds three Master’s degrees and is a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute. He has lectured internationally on spacepower, space warfare and strategy.

Steven Freeland

Professor Steven Freeland (BCOM, LLB, LLM, PHD) is a Co-Founder and Principal at Azimuth Advisory, and is Emeritus Professor at Western Sydney University, where he was previously the Dean of the School of Law, and Professorial Fellow at Bond University. He also has honorary Adjunct or Visiting Appointments at the University of Vienna; the iCourts Centre of Excellence for International Courts, University of Copenhagen; the University of Hong Kong; the London Institute of Space Policy and Law; UniversitĂ© Toulouse1 Capitole; the Centre for Research in Air and Space Law, Â鶹AV; the Outer Space Institute, University of British Columbia; Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, a Marie Curie Fellow (2013-2014), an expert assessor for Government Research Councils in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, South Africa, The Netherlands and the United States, and has taught various aspects of International Law in over 20 countries. Prior to becoming an academic, he had a 20-year career as an international commercial lawyer and investment banker.

He has represented the Australian Government at various United Nations Committee Meetings, and advised the Australian, New Zealand, Norwegian and several other Governments on issues related to the national and international regulation of space activities and the development of a national space-industry strategy. He has been appointed by the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS) as Vice-Chair of a 5 year Working Group addressing issues regarding the exploration, exploitation and utilization of space resources, and by the Australian Government as a Member of the Australian Space Agency Advisory Board. Among other appointments, he is a Director of the International Institute of Space Law (IISL); a member of the Space Law Committee of the International Law Association (ILA); and a member of both the Space Law Committee and War Crimes Committee of the International Bar Association (IBA). He has also been a Visiting Professional within the Appeals Chamber at the International Criminal Court (ICC), and a Special Advisor to the Danish Foreign Ministry in matters related to the ICC.

He sits on the Editorial Board of the Canada-based Annals of Air and Space Law, the German-based German Journal of Air and Space Law, the China-based Space Law Review, the London-based ROOM Space Journal, the Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Planetary Science, the Russian-based Space Law Research and on the Advisory Board of a series of books entitled Studies in Space Law. He is also Co-Editor of Annotated Leading Cases of International Criminal Tribunals, a series of casebooks annotating the jurisprudence of the International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and the Special Panels for Serious Crimes in East Timor.

He has authored approximately 300 publications on various aspects of International Law and has been invited to present over 1800 expert commentaries by national and international media outlets worldwide on a wide range of legal and geopolitical issues. He has been invited to present conference papers. presentations and keynote speeches in Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Denmark, Estonia, Ethiopia, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, The Philippines, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam.

Brian Green

Major Brian D. Green is an instructor in the Operations and International Law Division at the Air Force Judge Advocate General’s School (AFJAGS), Maxwell Air Force Base (AFB), Alabama, where he has served since July 2017. He provides basic and advanced legal instruction to U.S. and allied military and civilian attorneys, paralegals, and other officers from around the world through AFJAGS and Air University courses. Along with fellow Â鶹AV alumna Dr. Andrea Harrington, he helped coach the first Air Command and Staff College team at the 2019 Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court competition, where the team became semi-finalists and won the Best New Team award.

Major Green deployed in 2018 as a Deputy Legal Advisor at the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) for U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM), where he provided operational legal advice for coalition multi-domain contingency operations and plans across the 20 countries within USCENTCOM’s area of responsibility, including Operations INHERENT RESOLVE and FREEDOM’S SENTINEL. He deployed to Baghdad in 2007 as part of the detainee operations task force for Operation IRAQI FREEDOM.

In his most recent prior assignment, Major Green was the Chief of Space and International Law for Fourteenth Air Force (14 AF) at Vandenberg AFB, California. There, he provided legal advice to the dual-hatted commander of 14 AF and U.S. Strategic Command’s Joint Functional Component Command for Space (JFCC SPACE), staffs, and subordinate units. Major Green has also served tours in the base legal offices at Grand Forks and Lackland; represented hundreds of Airmen as a disability attorney before formal physical evaluation boards; and led the team of medical law consultants for the Texas-New Mexico region.

Major Green has written papers and articles on topics such as space situational awareness data sharing, space traffic management, and space weapons. He has also edited articles for MILAMOS and the Air Force Law Review. He has an LL.M. degree in Air and Space Law from Â鶹AV (2015), a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law (2004), and B.A. degrees in Political Science and Interdisciplinary Visual Arts from the University of Washington (2001).

Andrea Harrington

Prof. Andrea Harrington currently serves as the Co-Director of the Institute of Air and Space Law and Associate Professor in the Â鶹AV Faculty of Law. She is a member of the editorial board for the Â鶹AV Annals of Air and Space Law, New Space, and the American Bar Association publication The Air and Space Lawyer as well as providing peer review for numerous other publications including Acta Astronautica and Space Policy. Among other publications, she is the author of the book “Space Insurance and the Law: Maximizing Private Activities in Outer Space,” which won the British Insurance Law Association Book Prize for 2022. Prof. Harrington is a licensed attorney in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She also teaches in the Space Resources Program for the Colorado School of Mines. Her current research focuses on the use of the principle of due regard in space law and international law.

Prof. Harrington previously served as Dean of Space Education at Air University for the United States Space Force (USSF), where she was responsible for overseeing the West Space Seminar and Schriever Space Scholars, as well as leading Guardian Education development efforts for USSF Space Delta 13. In that role, she led the establishment of ground-breaking USSF academic programs in Washington DC through Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Prior to that role, she served as Chair of the Department of Spacepower and Director of the Schriever Space Scholars concentration at Air Command and Staff College, where she was a Full Professor of Military and Security Studies. There she taught International Space Law and Policy, International Security, and Science Fiction & Military Culture. Before that Prof. Harrington served as the Associate Director of the Air and Space Law Programs at the University of Mississippi, where she taught International Space Law, US Domestic Space Law, International Private Air Law, US National Aviation Law, and Remote Sensing Law. She has been Associate Chair for the Policy, Economics, and Law Department for the International Space University’s 2018 Space Studies Program, Jr. Project Manager for Secure World Foundation, and researcher on projects for the FAA Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation, the International Society for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and the Space Security Index.

Prof. Harrington was an Erin J.C. Arsenault Fellow in Space Governance at the Â鶹AV Institute of Air and Space Law (IASL), where her doctoral research focused on insurance and liability issues for the commercial space industry. Prof. Harrington holds a DCL and LLM from the Â鶹AV IASL, as well as a JD with High Honors from the University of Connecticut School of Law, an MSc in European Politics and Governance from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a BA in International Relations and History from Boston University (Magna Cum Laude). Prior to transitioning to air and space law, she was active in the insurance and financial compliance fields.

Deborah Housen-Couriel

Deborah is the Chief Legal Officer and VP Regulation for Konfidas Digital, a leading Israeli cybersecurity and data protection consulting firm, advising on high-level strategies for legal planning and regulatory compliance in the areas of corporate governance, preparedness, data protection and cybercrime. Her expertise focuses on global and Israeli cybersecurity law and regulation. Deborah’s experience at the international level includes her current service as Chair of Working Group D of the , as a Core Expert on the Manual on International Law Applicable to Military Uses of Outer Space (MILAMOS) project, and as a member of two of the GCSC’s Research Advisory Groups. She was a member of the International Group of Experts that drafted the 2017 .0 manual on state activity in cyberspace.

Deborah is an advisory board member of the Hebrew University Cyber Security Research Center; and a research fellow at the ; ; and the at Tel Aviv University. She teaches courses on cybersecurity law and regulation at the Law School of Hebrew University and at the Herzliya IDC, and has served as a guest lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Exec Ed Program on . In 2010-11, Deborah co-chaired the Regulation and Policy Committee of the National Cyber Initiative launched by the Prime Minister’s Office; and in 2013-4 was as a member of the ’s Public Committee on the Cyber Professions. She is currently researching regulatory models for government-private sector information sharing to mitigate cyber threats.

Ram Jakhu

Dr. Ram Jakhu currently holds a position of Professor (Retired-Active) at the Faculty of Law, Â鶹AV. Till 31 August 2024, he served as a tenured Full Professor at the Faculty of Law, Â鶹AV. Earlier he served as the Director of the Institute of Air and Space Law and of the Centre for Research in Air and Space Law of Â鶹AV. For over 40 years, he taught international space law, law of space applications, law of space commercialization, space safety and security, national regulation of space activities, law of telecommunications, and public international law.

He has taught Space Law and Policy in several countries; made presentations to the United Nations Committee of Peaceful Uses of Outer Space; participated in the drafting of Space Law Curriculum for the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs; advised several countries in the preparation of national laws and policies, including National Space Law and Policy for South Africa and India; convened and participated numerous international interdisciplinary space law and policy related conferences and workshops around the world; and currently heads a multi-million dollars research and outreach program for space law and policy.

He is the Project Director and Co-Editor of the Â鶹AV Manual on International Law Applicable to Military Uses of Outer Space (MILAMOS or Â鶹AV Manual); Project Director and Editor-in-Chief of the Â鶹AV Encyclopedia of International Space Law, and Project Director of Project on Sustainable Development in South Asian Countries (The Role of Space Technologies, Laws and Policies). He is the Managing Editor of the Space Regulatory Series, and member of the Editorial Boards of Space and Evolution, Annals of Air & Space Law, Astropolitics, and German Journal of Air & Space Law.

Professor Jakhu was a Member of the Global Agenda Council on Space of the World Economic Forum; the Governance Group of the Space Security Index; and Fellow as well as the Chairman of the Legal and Regulatory Committee of the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety. He is Managing Editor of the Space Regulatory Series, member of the Editorial Boards of Space and Evolution, Annals of Air & Space Law, Astropolitics, and German Journal of Air & Space Law. He co-authored three books, over 130 articles, 70 research reports and edited 13 books, including the one that received the 2011 Book Award from the International Academy of Astronautics.

In 2022, he received the “Excellence in Supervision and Mentorship Award” from Graduate Law Student Association of the Faculty of Law of Â鶹AV, in 2016 the “Leonardo da Vinci Life-Long Achievement Award” from the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety and in 2007 the “Distinguished Service Award” from the IISL for significant contribution to the development of space law.

He holds Doctor of Civil Law (Dean’s Honours List) and Master of Laws (LL.M.) degrees from Â鶹AV, Canada as well as LL.M., LL.B., and B.A. degrees from Panjab University, India.

David Koplow

Professor Koplow specializes in the areas of public international law and national security law. He joined the Georgetown Law faculty in 1981. His principal courses have been International Law I (the introductory survey of public international law topics), a seminar in the area of arms control, non-proliferation and terrorism, and the pro-seminar for LLM students in national security law. In addition, he has directed a clinic, the Center for Applied Legal Studies, in which students provide pro bono representation to refugees who seek asylum in the United States because of persecution in their homelands.

His government service has included stints as Special Counsel for Arms Control to the General Counsel of the Department of Defense (2009-2011); as Deputy General Counsel for International Affairs at the Department of Defense (1997-1999); and as Attorney-Advisor and Special Assistant to the Director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (1978-1981). He is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School and a Rhodes Scholar. Most of his scholarly writing concentrates on the intersection between international law and U.S. constitutional law, especially in the areas of arms control and national security and treaty negotiation and implementation.

Donna Lawler

Donna Lawler is a Co-Founder and Principal at Azimuth Advisory and is a member of the International Institute of Space Lawyers. She is an experienced commercial lawyer specialising in complex transactions in the space and telecommunications industries. For over twenty years in the satellite industry she has been an advisor to a range of commercial space organisations, including operators of cubesats, established operators of geo-stationary satellites and launch services providers. In particular, she has had key involvement in the build, launch and insurance programmes for six geo-stationary satellites on behalf of Optus and its parent company SingTel. These include the Optus C1 satellite, which is a hybrid civilian and military spacecraft, jointly owned by Optus and the Australian Defence Forces. Her involvement in space-related programmes has also included the sale and purchase of satellite capacity, securing the use of orbital slots, advising on risk, liability and insurance issues and negotiating other civilian and military satellite-related contracts. Prior to co-founding Azimuth Advisory, Donna served as Assistant General Counsel for Optus Satellite, an Australian satellite operator. She has also practiced technology and telecommunications law at Baker & McKenzie in Hong Kong and Minter Ellison in Sydney.

Donna has published joint papers on Space Law topics internationally and has been a presenter on commercial Space Law topics in Australia (including the International Space University’s Southern Hemisphere Space Program), Austria, Canada, Denmark, South Africa, Taiwan and the United States.

Elina Morozova

Elina Morozova is Head of the International and Legal Service at the Intersputnik International Organization of Space Communications (intergovernmental satellite telecommunication organization headquartered in Moscow, Russia). Before joining Intersputnik in 2005, she was working at the legal department of a major Russian telecommunications company. Specializing in the field of international space and telecommunications law, she focuses on issues related to the use of the radio frequency spectrum and satellite orbits, operation of geostationary and non-geostationary satellites, provision of access to the satellite capacity and satellite telecommunications services. Elina Morozova earned two university degrees in international law and world economy from the All-Russian Academy of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation and holds an LL.M in International Business Law from the University of Manchester. She is a member of the Russian Association of International Law, heads the working group for the revision of the regulatory instruments of the Regional Commonwealth in the Field of Communications (RCC) and serves as Director on the Board of the International Institute of Space Law (IISL).

Todd Pennington

Todd PenningtonĚýis the Senior Research Fellow for Space Strategy and Policy at the Center for Strategic Research, Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University. He previously served as Associate Deputy General Counsel for Intelligence at the Department of Defense Office of General Counsel. During his 25 years of active duty military service, Mr. Pennington also served as the chief legal counsel for U.S. Space Command and U.S. Space Force, and held positions with the Joint Staff and Joint Special Operations Command.Ěý

Mr. Pennington specializes in space strategy and policy. He is the recipient of awards including the Burton Awards’ Public Service in the Military Award, U.S. Special Operations Command’s Major General William F. Garrison Award for excellence in legal support to special operations forces, and numerous military decorations. He has deployed eight times to Iraq, Afghanistan, and other locations. Mr. Pennington is an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, and is an Affiliate Fellow with the school's Center on National Security.

Mr. Pennington earned his Juris Doctor from the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law at the University of Memphis, and a Bachelor of Arts in political science and international relations from the University of Memphis. He is a graduate of the Program for Emerging Leaders at the Center for Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University, and is an individual member of the International Institute of Space Law.ĚýĚý

Daniel R. Ruhweza

Daniel Ronald Ruhweza is a Ugandan and UK trained attorney and senior lecturer at law. He is the acting Head – Department of Law and Jurisprudence, School of Law, Makerere University where he also serves as Patron of the Moot Society and the Christian Law Students’

Fellowship. He is a Commonwealth and DFID Scholar, and Advocate of the High Court of Uganda. He is a recipient of the Chief Justice & Attorney General’s Prizes for Academic Excellence, as well as the Commonwealth, SIDA, Cambridge Trust and DFID Scholarships. Daniel is President Emeritus of the Uganda Christian Lawyers Fraternity and Chair Emeritus of its Board of Directors. He is the Chair of the Uganda Law Society Rule of Law and Strategic Litigation Cluster and has served on the Committee of Legal Education and Training of the Uganda Law Council. He is also Coordinator of the LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in

Africa) programme. He has served as Board member of the Uganda Scripture Union and (Christian) Advocates of Africa Organisations. He has written on various topics including the judiciary, death penalty, international criminal law, transitional justice, good governance, and constitutionalism.

Victoria Samson

Victoria Samson is the Washington Office Director for Secure World Foundation and has over twenty-five years of experience in military space and security issues.

Before joining SWF, Ms. Samson served as a Senior Analyst for the Center for Defense Information (CDI), where she leveraged her expertise in missile defense, nuclear reductions, and space security issues to conduct in-depth analysis and media commentary. Prior to her time at CDI, Ms. Samson was the Senior Policy Associate at the Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers, a consortium of arms control groups in the Washington, D.C. area, where she worked with Congressional staffers, members of the media, embassy officials, citizens, and think-tanks on issues related to ballistic missile defense and nuclear weapons reduction. Before that, she was a researcher at Riverside Research Institute, where she worked on war-gaming scenarios for the Missile Defense Agency's Directorate of Intelligence.

Known throughout the space and security arena as a thought leader on policy and budgetary issues, Ms. Samson is often interviewed by multinational media outlets, including the New York Times, Space News, and NPR. She is also a prolific author of numerous op-eds, analytical pieces, journal articles, and updates on missile defense and space security matters. She is also a member of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) committee on space security and the Space Security Working Group of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM)’s Committee on International Security and Arms Control (CISAC).

Wen Zhou

Wen Zhou is currently Legal Adviser of the Arms and Conduct of Hostilities Unit of the Legal Division at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Headquarters in Geneva. Wen’s functions include, among others, coordinating, developing and representing the ICRC’s legal and policy positions on a range of issues, notably military space operations and international humanitarian law, and the legal review of new weapons, means and methods of warfare. Prior to joining headquarters in 2018, she was Head of Legal Department at the ICRC Regional Delegation for East Asia based in Beijing.

Previous to joining the ICRC, Wen worked successively in the World Bank in Washington D.C., and in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.

Wen holds a PhD in international law and a Bachelor of Law from Peking University, and a Master of European Law from University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne.

The opinions of the attending speakers are solely their personal view. They neither represent their country of nationality nor their institution.

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