Please join the Space Diplomacy Lab of the Duke University Center for International and Global Studies/Rethinking Diplomacy Program, for a timely discussion with Professor Frans von der Dunk, Harvey and Susan Perlman Alumni and Othmer Professor of Space Law at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln on Friday April 8, 2022.

The Space Diplomacy Lab team will discuss with Professor von der Dunk the legal and regulatory norms that need development to build a policy toolkit for diplomats to avoid destabilizing scenarios in space related to Russia's continued war against Ukraine - especially those that could endanger the future safe and sustainable use of low-Earth orbit. We will discuss topics including the urgent need for norms-setting to develop well-understood legal and policy responses to any potential future interaction between the space assets of private sector entities and nation states, and how private sector geospatial and internet-providing platforms can help assess and coordinate humanitarian assistance and evacuation routes in Ukraine. More broadly, we will continue our program-wide discussion of the urgent need for longer-term anticipatory diplomacy and a global Summit for Space Security, which can become a framework for diplomats to work toward orbital sustainability as the number of technologies, nations, and companies operating in low-Earth orbit continues to multiply during this decade.

Professor Dr. Frans G. von der Dunk holds the Harvey and Susan Perlman Alumni / Othmer Chair of Space Law at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s LL.M. Program on Space and Telecommunication Law since January 2008. He also is Director of Black Holes BV, Consultancy in space law and policy, based in Leiden. Von der Dunk was awarded the Distinguished Service Award of the International Institute of Space Law (IISL) of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) in Vancouver, in October 2004, the Social Science Award of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) in Valencia, in October 2006 and the Social Science Book Award of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) in Jerusalem, in October 2015. He was a signatory, together with various Nobel Prize winners, dozens of astronauts and cosmonauts and other luminaries from the global science and entertainment community, of the ‘Asteroid 100x Declaration’, December 2014. Von der Dunk has acted as legal advisor or legal task manager in more than 130 projects, advising various government agencies and international organizations as well as a number of non-governmental organizations and industrial stakeholders on matters of space law and policy, including major space applications such as satellite navigation, remote sensing and private commercial spaceflight.