September 9, 2025

A Policy Framework for International Cooperation in Space Biotechnology

In the coming years and decades, humans could return to the Moon and set foot on Mars for the first time, potentially opening up a radical new era in space travel. Advances in biotech will be at the heart of these missions and future scientific, resource, and security benefits could be tremendous. But there are also many ethical risks.  

What are the social, geopolitical, and ethical consequences of biotech-enabled space exploration? How can we ensure that these scientific advances will benefit life on Earth? What kind of framework is needed to support the development of these new technologies in an international context?

Access the new report from Carnegie Council and Northeastern University.

More Resources on Space & Multilateralism

From Our Archives: The Question of Space, by Edwin H. Fedder

In this November 1958 article from Carnegie Council’s Worldview magazine, just over a year after the launch of Sputnik, Professor Edwin H. Fedder, then of the University of Pittsburgh, writes: “We have conquered the basic problem of launching vehicles into outer space, but we have not determined a program for controlling space . . . the need for such a plan is obvious.” With the Cold War as a backdrop, how did the academic and policy worlds see international space governance developing in the 1950s? How relevant are their ideas in 2025?

Space as a “Global Commons”

At a recent Carnegie Council event, Northeastern University’s Professor Mai’a Cross, an author on the Space Biotechnology report, discusses the idea of space as a “global commons.” With China and the U.S. leading two competing blocs of space actors, how can we work to avoid conflict in this domain?

Still Time to Register for Values & Interests: Post-Liberal American Power  

The defunding of U.S. soft power institutions, significant cuts to foreign aid, and the embrace of an aggressive transactional style of diplomacy have shattered long-held assumptions about American values and its interests on the world stage. This begs the question: Has Trump 2.0 ushered in an era of post-liberal American power?  

On September 10 at 5:30 pm ET, Carnegie Council will host the first panel in its new keynote event series, Values & Interests, which seeks to interrogate the relationship between morality and power in a rapidly changing geopolitical environment. Register to attend this expert panel discussion and audience Q&A opportunity.

And don't miss the latest Values & Interest podcast with Professor Elke Schwarz, as she discusses the new highly militarized tech ecosystem and the resulting dehumanization of civilians in conflict zones around the world. 

Ethics in a Post-Liberal World

For much more on the state of America in the world under the second Trump administration, don’t miss Carnegie Council President Joel Rosenthal’s most recent article.  

As liberal principles hang in the balance, how can states, businesses, institutions, and the people bring these norms back to life?

Multilateralism & the Next Generation of Ethical Leadership 

In the first profile from our second Carnegie Ethics Fellow cohort, Josh Acosta, nonresident fellow at George Mason University's Carter School, discusses the importance of mentors, the value of ethical frameworks, and his work focused on post-conflict reconstruction, mediation, and peacebuilding.  

He says of the Fellowship: “Whether we deliberate about the future of democracy, ethical perspectives of emerging tech, or climate governance, we will build an agenda of thought leadership that is needed in a fractured world.”