During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing last week, Rep. Sheri Biggs (R-SC) questioned James F. Jeffrey, a retired career foreign service officer at the U.S. Department of State, about working with NGOs to develop international space policy.
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00:00Recognized. Thank you, Chairman Mastin. I'm grateful to our witnesses for being here today.
00:05So as a member both of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Science, Space, and Technology
00:12Committee, I recognize the undeniable intersection between our diplomatic efforts and our activities
00:19in the space domain. The United States stands at a pivotal moment where our leadership in space
00:27is linked to our economic vitality, our national security, as well as our scientific progress,
00:34and our overall standing on the global stage. Given this reality, a central aspect of our
00:41reauthorization review must be the State Department's strategic role in shaping and implementing
00:50the U.S. foreign policy concerning the space arena. In this context, the expertise
00:57and insights residing outside of government represent an invaluable resource. Effectively
01:05harnessing these perspectives is not merely beneficial. It's essential for crafting forward-looking
01:13space-related foreign policy. Therefore, I would like to direct my first question to Ambassador
01:22Jeffrey. What specific strategies does the State Department, particularly through the Office
01:29of Space Affairs, currently employ to integrate the perspectives of non-governmental actors into
01:39both the formulation and the execution of U.S. foreign policy within the space domain?
01:45It's a great question, Congresswoman, but I would like to defer to Secretary Hale, who I think did
01:53more with space when he was undersecretary than certainly I did working on Syria. Is that okay with you?
01:58That's great. Thank you.
01:59Well, thank you very much, Jim, but I don't know that I did have much of anything to do with it. In my mind, it's one of those categories, though, of the emerging activities that backward-thinking, backward-looking,
02:01organizational charts, authorizations, and organizational charts, and authorizations bills of the past or the absence of them is an impediment to dealing with the new challenges. And so that's exactly why what we're talking about today is so valuable and so important, is to make sure we're actually resourced for the new threats. I don't know the answer to your question, but I think it's
02:31about how effective we are in integrating with NGOs. I would say, you know, the State Department is never going to be the lead on space, so we're a supporting actor. So if I was in charge, I would say that our role should be to make sure that we are working with our other international partners to make sure our space policies are being effectively implemented and finding allies in that regard and spotlighting the threats and challenges that obviously our competitors pose.
03:00Thank you. Thank you.
03:01Thank you. Well, I'll go to a more general question then, and I'll be happy to have an answer from either of you. But what concrete steps can Congress and the State Department take to more effectively and proactively integrate non-governmental expertise directly into the Office of Space Affairs for foreign policy?
03:30Having ducked your last question, I'll try to take that. And then Israel wants to do it too. We work at every level with NGOs. They're a major source of the thing we're always out there searching for, which is information.
03:45They're a major source of influence on our host governments. We have to be careful because we don't want to be interfering in internal affairs, although in many ways we do. But so I would say that there's a very healthy relationship. It's got some tension between U.S. embassies and the State Department and NGOs, both American and other countries, because they're major players on the international scene.
04:17And Congresswoman, I would just thank you for highlighting the contributions and roles of non-governmental actors in international space policy. And we are facing, you know, a global closure of civil society space that affects academic experts, universities as well. So I think the State Department maintaining those channels to non-governmental actors, recognizing this is absolutely 21st century diplomacy, is essential.
04:41Thank you. And with that, I yield back.
04:46Thank you, Representative.