Since the early 1980s, the United Nations General Assembly and its affiliated forum, the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, has had the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space issue on its agenda. In the intervening years, the threat of weapons being introduced into the outer space realm has waxed and waned, but, in the main, a benign environment free from man-made threats has prevailed, allowing for great strides in the exploration and use of space. Recently, a renewal of great power rivalry including the development of offensive ‘counter-space’ capabilities has resurrected the spectre of armed conflict in space. With widespread political support for the non-weaponization of outer space, has the time come to give legal expression to this goal by means of an optional protocol to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty?

自 1980 年代初以来，联合国大会及其附属论坛日内瓦裁军谈判会议将防止外层空间军备竞赛问题列入议程。在此期间，武器进入外空领域的威胁有增有减，但总体而言，没有人为威胁的良性环境盛行，使太空探索和利用取得了长足的进步. 最近，包括发展进攻性“反太空”能力在内的大国竞争的复兴，重新引发了太空武装冲突的幽灵。在外空非武器化得到广泛政治支持的情况下，是否是通过 1967 年外空条约的任择议定书来合法表达这一目标的时候了？