Turkish Space Policy in a Technopolar Paradigm Shift: A Roadmap

In 2021, Ian Bremmer coined the term technopolarity, signaling a world where big tech companies, especially in the digital realm, were gaining so much power that they were now able to ignore or even challenge nation-states. Some of these companies in the digital realm, such as X or Amazon, also own space companies such as SpaceX or Blue Origin. The space sector has been rapidly expanding with the emergence of a highly ambitious private sector worldwide, and space-based services are becoming essential for carrying on with daily life. Boosted by the power of AI technologies, space activities promise to become more prevalent, more interdependent with other emerging technologies, and thus offer even more services faster than they are today, as well as providing more power to the nation-states that master them. This is surely adding fuel to the fire in debates about technopolarity. Within this framework, this study explores how an emerging spacefaring nation like Türkiye should prepare for a technopolar world where technology companies increasingly challenge or add to the power of nation-states. The author discusses technopolarity as a concept in the making, vis-à-vis the wider understanding of polarity in international relations in general, demonstrates in which ways space activities and discussions on technopolarity are connected and puts Türkiye forward as a case study of an emerging actor in space to suggest a roadmap for a space policy in an increasingly unpredictable global environment.