Mélusine Lebret, a Youth Fusion intern, recently sat down with Almudena Azcárate Ortega, from the UN Institute for Disarmament Research. Almudena is the research associate for the Space Security Program, as well as for the Weapons of Mass Destruction & Other Strategic Weapons Program, at UNIDIR.

In our chat with Almudena, we covered topics from her backgrounds to the current state of the research on outer space security and the actions that are being taken to pursue the disarmament movement in orbit and beyond. We began with a discussion around UNIDIR’s mission in outer space security, the most difficult space norms it aims at tackling and how its achievements help question the 1967 Outer Space Treaty for the better. As the conversation led to analyzing the effects of counter space acts on the militarisation of space, we focused on the breakthroughs UNIDIR’s Space Dossiers had on the subject.

Finally, because Almudena is a powerful activist who strongly promotes international and collaborative approach to space security and its issues, we talked about the zones and countries the international community integrate further in decisions and activities central to the development of space exploration and security. Building on this, we finished the chat by exchanging on the situation of gender inclusivity in the domain of space, concluding with Almudena’s inspiring advice for young women who would love to pursue a career in space security. 

This podcast has been in support of the webinar “Ensuring that outer space remains a common good”, which took place on September 29th, 2022. This webinar is in support of the disarmament handbook “Assuring Our Common Future”, which can be found at disarmamenthandbook.org.

Article and Podcast by: Mélusine Lebret