The Space′s geopolitics: towards an increasingly explicit realism

This article deals with the evolution of space exploration, discussing that institutionalism has been the engine of its legal regime, despite what could be induced in the first instance from the 1967 OST. Likewise, the fringes of said Treaty are analyzed, both in relation to the militarization of space, and in relation to the hypothetical economic exploitation of its resources. To further emphasize these aspects, a double strategy is used. On the one hand, the analogy with the maritime school of geopolitics and, on the other hand, the conceptual framework of the gray area, understanding that the first contributes to the understanding of the interrelationship between geoeconomics and geopolitics, and that the second is of very likely application over the next few years, for the reasons put forward in the article.