The International Politics of the Orbit-Spectrum Issue

In the last ten years, the world has witnessed an increasing competition for scarce natural resources. As economic systems develop, they produce more goods and consume more resources. Available resources for development not only involve matter and energy but location in space as well. One of the most important resources of the latter type is the geostationary orbit and the electromagnetic spectrum. The limited positions available in the orbit and the spectrum coupled with the increasing demand for them throughout the world, has created an international problem of distribution among contemporary nation-states. The orbit-spectrum issue has therefore become a political controversy raging in many specialized organs of the international system