States in planetary spaces diplomacy: navigating the polymorphic concept of sovereignty at the turn of the millennium

• Auteur / Autrice : Kévin Gauthier
• Direction : Thierry Balzacq
• Type : Projet de thèse
• Discipline(s) : Science politique
• Date : Inscription en doctorat le 01/10/2021
• Etablissement(s) : Paris, Institut d'études politiques
• Ecole(s) doctorale(s) : École doctorale de Sciences Po (Paris ; 1995-....)

Résumé

Coining the umbrella concept of planetary spaces diplomacy, this dissertation fills an academic gap by highlighting the return of state sovereignty: in the global commons and international spaces – outer space, airspace, the high seas and deep seabed, the polar regions and cyberspace, at the turn of the millennium. Despite international legal frameworks designed to guarantee state-free spaces or to open them up to international coordination, this project reveals that planetary spaces diplomacy is state-heavy . Using comparative quantitative and qualitative methodology, this work sheds light on (I) the commonalities, spillovers and spatiosyncrasies of the five planetary spaces genetically linked legal frameworks of planetary spaces, by reconstructing their shared normative genealogy. (II) The struggle for authority, legitimacy and control takes the form of openly expressed arm-twisting and/ or can be rooted in the strategic semantic instability of diplomatic discourse. (III) Sovereignty claims also have ethical implications for the preservation of peace and the environmental natural resources. This dissertation proposes the concept of State Planetary Spaces Responsibility Quotient to characterise states’ behaviour towards planetary spaces.