This shift from public to private raises a range of new and quite pressing questions around accountability, enforcement, and international coordination. Especially for organisations that create, maintain, as well as depend on space infrastructure, understanding and policing space crime becomes vital.
The VU-UT Masterclass offers such a comprehensive understanding of the criminological, policing studies, legal, governance, technological, and societal dimensions of crime and policing in outer space. It brings together several perspectives, making it an interdisciplinary programme that equips professionals to anticipate emerging criminality in space, that can critically assess possible future developments for policing, and who will be able to address the emergent and evolving governance of space crime and policing through foresight-analysis.
The masterclass carries a workload of 5 ECTS and is delivered in an intensive two-week format. The first week consists of interactive sessions held on the campuses of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the University of Twente. The second week focuses on individual reflection, research, and the development of a forward-looking advisory assignment.
Topics covered
- Introduction to Space Crime, Policing and Justice
- Space Law, Governance and International Jurisdiction
- Criminology and Policing in Outer Space
- Human Behaviour in Extreme Environments
- Cybersecurity and Space Security
- Risk Management and Crisis Response
- Ethics, Justice and Governance Design
- Future Scenarios for Policing and Enforcement in Space
