Paper Short Abstract:

The paper theorises the geopolitics of outer space from the fringes of the Russian space industry in Central Kazakhstan. Bringing the focus of space exploration back down to Earth demonstrates that outer space’s frontiers are also firmly grounded in geopolitical borders.

Paper Abstract:

For Russia, outer space presents an important geopolitical arena. It is a space onto which the state’s social, economic, technological, and military potency has been projected since the inception of the Soviet space program. Today, Cosmodrome Baikonur, Russia’s main gateway to space, with its grand infrastructure, is an important stage for the performance of the state's sovereignty in the face of competing nation-states and private enterprises.

However, Russia’s access to space from Baikonur hinges on a delicate political arrangement with Kazakhstan, where the Cosmodrome is located. Since the early 1990s, the Cosmodrome, along with the adjacent city of Baikonur, has been leased by Russia from Kazakhstan. Essentially, Russian and Kazakhstani nationals found themselves living in a closed extraterritorial Russian enclave, as the city was fenced off from the rest of the Republic. The fact that Kazakhstan, despite its strong emphasis on national sovereignty and its role in space exploration, gave up part of its land was seen as a betrayal by Kazakhstani citizens of Baikonur.

In this paper, I will draw attention to how Russian-Kazakhstani land rights and visions of a sovereign state are defined and rearranged in and around the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Specifically, I will interrogate how, in questioning the legitimacy of continuous Russian presence and the credibility of their own state, Kazakhstani residents of Baikonur articulate uneven political arrangements of the lease agreement and what it tells us about larger polities to which it belongs.