Scholarly Articles
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Module 2: Scholarly Articles
Khadijah Bowers
Professor Nettles
IDS 100
The easiest steps for reading the article would be skimming and scanning the text to
identify the main idea, as well as the main points and arguments. The most difficult steps would
be analyzing the article's structure, understanding the nuances of the argument, and making
connections to other relevant topics.
The main concepts of the article that may be challenging to understand are the legal
regimes that govern space, the sea, and Antarctica, the “Common Heritage of Mankind”
principle, and the various space and sea treaties. The main idea of the article is that, with the
increasing militaristic rhetoric surrounding space development and the rise of private companies
engaging in space mining, there is a need for a new cooperative international regime governing
space that would benefit the United States and its allies. This regime should be based on a
recommitment to the demilitarization of space and the adoption of a model that would allow for
cooperation between spacefaring nations in order to avoid a resource race and ensuing conflict.
