Colloquium on Space-Cyber Power
Project of the Indiana University Space Governance Lab
Webinar, November 5-7, 2025
Summary
The Colloquium Conveners welcome the participants of the Colloquium organized by Indiana University Bloomington’s Space Governance Lab as part of the three-year project funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR): Toward an Integrated Theory of Space-Cyber Power. The Colloquium will be held remotely, to accommodate participants from across the nation on November 5-7, 2025.
RSVP below to register and receive a link to the online event.
Theme
The Colloquium will discuss the foundations for the missing theory of space-cyber power: what power means in the 21st century, in an era of combined space-cyber theaters and operations, and how the U.S. can accumulate, project, and leverage space-cyber power for its defense and economic growth and to maintain and increase its influence.
A theory of space-cyber power may integrate the space and cyberspace domains into a single nexus. Moreover, it may integrate both military and commercial space-cyber capabilities as essential elements of power.
The Colloquium is transdisciplinary and includes thought-provoking and exploratory papers, selected via a competitive Call for Papers, from multiple discipline including strategic studies, international relations, international law, and international political economy, as well as. contributions from active and retired defense/government personnel.
The Book
The Colloquium will lead to a final report to be submitted to the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force, as well as to policymakers in D.C., and published as an edited book by Cambridge University Press.
The Project
Indiana University’s Space Governance Lab launched a 3-year research project funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) (2024-2027): Toward an Integrated Theory of Space-Cyber Power.
The project convenes a diverse epistemic community of scholars and experts, brokers of power, experienced statesmen, and military professionals to discuss and lay the foundations for a theory of space-cyber power. Through a series of focused workshops, wargames, and tabletop exercises, held under the Chatham rule, and the Colloquium, participants will engender commonly defined concepts, challenge prevailing conceptions, and seek to illuminate factors in metaphorical blind spots. The project was officially launched by Workshop 1: Launch! held in Washington D.C. on March 7, 2025. The Colloquium will be the second event as part of the project.
Indiana University’s Space Governance Lab has already made pioneering research contributions in identifying, signaling, and studying the space-cyber nexus and with the introduction of the nation’s first academic courses on space cybersecurity and space-cyber governance. This project builds and adds on this previous work.
Colloquium Organizers
Scott J. Shackelford JD, PhD
Indiana University Bloomington
Principal Investigator (PI)
Eytan Tepper, DIL, PhD
Indiana University Bloomington
Co-Principal Investigator & Project Manager
Research Assistants
James B. Romano, Senior Research Assistant
Madelyn Gamble, Research Assistant
Zachary Kistler, Research Assistant
Find Us
Agenda
Day 1 - November 5th, 2025
Introduction
9:00-9:15am |
Organizers: Prof. Scott Shackelford (PI), Prof. Eytan Tepper (Co-PI, Project Manager) |
Session 1: Theories of Power
9:15-9:30 |
Moderators: |
9:30-10:00 |
Mahesa B. Suprobo - 533d Training Squadron Detachment 2 Commander |
10:00-10:30 |
Ariel (Phantitra) Phuphaphantakarn - Graduate Student |
10:30-11:00 |
Clemence Poirier - Senior Cyberdefense Researcher |
11:00-11:15 |
Break
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Session 2: The Space-Cyber Nexus as a Warfighting Domain
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11:15-11:30 |
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11:30-12:00 |
Jacob Oakley - Adjunct Professor |
12:00-12:30 |
Anahiby Becerril - Vice President |
12:30-1:00 |
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1:00-1:30 |
Keely Podosin - Graduate Student |
1:30-2:00 |
Rob Frieden - Academy and Emeritus Professor of Telecommunications and Law |
2:00-2:15 |
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2:15-2:45 |
Elie Alhajjar - Senior Policy Researcher |
2:45-3:15 |
Deborah Housen-Couriel - Adjunct Professor - Hebrew University |
3:15-3:45 |
Nick Reese - Adjunct Professor |
3:45-4:00 |
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4:00-4:30 |
David A. Koch - Research Engineer |
4:30-5:00 |
Antonio Carlo - Coordinator |
Day 2 - November 6th, 2025
Introduction
9:00-9:15am |
Organizers: Prof. Scott Shackelford (PI), Prof. Eytan Tepper (Co-PI, Project Manager) |
Session 3: Law, Ethics, and the Future of the Final Frontier
9:15-9:45 |
Magdalena T. Bogacz - Assistant Professor of Military and Security Studies |
9:45-10:15 |
Francesca Giannoni-Crystal - University of Mississippi |
10:15-10:45 |
Thomas Breece Lowe - Graduated Senior |
10:45-11:15 |
Vivek Krishnamurthy - Associate Professor |
11:15-11:30 |
Break
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11:30-12:00 |
Afonso Seixas-Nunes - Assistant Professor of Law |
12:00-12:30 |
Max Fang - Lead Researcher for Data and Cyber Programs - Ostrom Workshop |
12:30-1:00 |
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Session 4: The Role of the Commercial Space Industry in Space-Cyber Power
1:00-1:15 |
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1:15-1:45 |
Matthew Zellner - Judge Advocate, Operations and International Law, Space Law Division |
1:45-2:15 |
Grzegorz Blicharz - Associate Professor |
2:15-2:45 |
Sameeksha Desai - Associate Professor |
2:45-3:00 |
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3:00-3:30 |
Christos A Makridis - Associate Professor |
Session 5: The Space-Cyber Nexus: Strategy and Security in the 21st Century
3:30-4:00 |
Roger D. Launius - Retired |
4:00-4:30 |
James D. Kiras - Dean and Professor of Military Strategy and Security Studies |
4:30-5:00 |
Gregory Daniel Miller - Dean of Space Education |
Day 3 - November 7th, 2025
Introduction
9:00-9:15am |
Organizers: Prof. Scott Shackelford (PI), Prof. Eytan Tepper (Co-PI, Project Manager) |
9:15-9:45 |
Jonathan K. Sawmiller - Deputy Staff Judge Advocate |
9:45-10:15 |
William R. Thompson - Distinguished and Rogers Professor Emeritus, Political Science |
10:15-10:45 |
Kun-Chin Lin - Professor of Military and Security Studies |
10:45-11:15 |
Gabriel Mahns - Student |
11:15-11:30 |
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