405 Miguel Yagües Palazón Environmental Challenges in Outer Space in the... gists have defended real tests in order to prevent India being left out of an international regime like India was with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT): they believe that if India had tested a nuclear weapon prior to the NPT, the country would have been grandfathered in as an official nuclear weapon state. By developing an ASAT test, India would obtain the status of an “official ASAT state” and along those same lines the Indian strategists seemed interested in developing an ASAT before the international community decided (whether formally or informally) to ban them.30 In turn, changes in Indian space policy have been viewed with considerable misgivings in China due to its acquisition of advanced technological capabilities and New Delhi’s deterrence strategy.31 For its part, Japan has also modified its outlook on space in recent years. Like India, Japan has been developing an entirely civilian space programme for decades. Both article 9 of the Japanese pacifist Constitution and its alliance with the United States curbed Tokyo’s interests in acquiring military space capabilities. Consequently, since 1969, Japan has exclusively developed “peaceful and non-military” activities, constituting a restrictive interpretation of OST commitments. However, in 2008, Japan passed the Basic Space Law, whose provisions allow it to make use of “non-aggressive” measures, similar to those adopted by the United States, the former Soviet Union and other space powers. The underlying reasons that have brought about this change are North Korea’s nuclear programme with its ballistic missiles and China’s growing space capabilities.32 In these circumstances the security dilemma paradox has reared its head once again in a broad range of scenarios: South Asia, the Korean peninsula, the “Taiwanese trian-gle”, Indo-China, Japan-China and Iran-Israel, triggering the comment from Ajey Lele that the “Asian region could be viewed as the place which presents the most wi-despread and exceptional security dilemma in the world».33 A GROWING NUMBER OF COUNTRIES WITH SPACE CAPABILITIES New space races at regional level in the framework of the second space age are cu-rrently acknowledged as an undeniable fact. Even in Africa, similar trends are begin-ning to appear, although on a smaller scale.34 30 Samson, V., “India and space security”, The Space Review, 9 May 2011, <http://www.thespacereview. com/article/1838/1> consulted: 15-9-2018. 31 Sachdeva, G. S., op. cit., note 27, p. 315. 32 Pace, S., “U.S.-Japan Space Security Cooperation”, in Schrogl, K-U., Hays, P. L., Robinson, J., and Giannopapa, D. M. Ch. (eds.), Handbook of Space Security. Policies, Applications and Programs, New York: Springer, 2015, pp. 338; 341; 350. 33 Lele, A., op. cit., note 10, p. 23. 34 Adamowski, J., “Angola eyes new satellite as African space race accelerates”, SpaceNews, 12 June 2018, <https://spacenews.com/angola-eyes-new-satellite-as-african-space-race-accelerates/> consulted: 15-9-2018. Revista del Instituto Español de Estudios Estratégicos n.º 12 - Año: 2018 - Págs.: 397 a 431
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