23 September 2023
Dr Nikita Chiu, Ad Astra Distinguished Fellow in Robotic and Outer Space Governance at SERC and Principal Investigator of SPACE-Gov, recently joined policymakers and eminent scholars in examining current technological threats to peace at Casina Pio IV within Vatican City. Dr Chiu addressed the expert group on the latest development of the space economy and its implications to global peace and stability, highlighting the importance of global space governance as demands for space sustainability prompt new methods of space operations.
Casina Pio IV is home to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, two of the most renowned academies that had an illustrious history of engaging world-leading scholars, including Galileo Galilei, Lord Martin Rees, and Nobel laureates Erwin Schrödinger and Max Planck.
The event, entitled “Pacem in Terris: War and other Obstacles to peace,” was convened jointly by The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and the Peace Research Institute Oslo. Dr Chiu would like to thank His Eminence, Cardinal Peter K. Turkson, Her Excellency, Prof Sr Helen Alford, and Prof Gregory Reichberg for the invitation, and was honoured to be part of this long and important tradition of intellectual inquiry.