Geopolitical tech warfare: How US-Ukraine-China-Russia satellite rivalry mirrors Cold War proxy conflicts and digital sovereignty struggles
Original framing: “Zelenskyy asked Trump to block Russia and China’s Starlink rival” — Financial Times
Indigenous communities, particularly in the Arctic and Pacific Islands, have long warned about the ecological and cultural risks of satellite proliferation. The Inuit Circumpolar Council has documented how space debris threatens traditional hunting practices tied to celestial navigation, while Māori scientists in New Zealand have criticized the lack of consultation on satellite launches near culturally significant star clusters. The 'Rassvet' system’s potential to disrupt these practices is rarely acknowledged in Western geopolitical analyses, which treat space as a neutral battleground rather than a shared environment with deep cultural significance. This omission reinforces the colonial erasure of Indigenous stewardship over celestial domains.
This satellite rivalry is not just a Cold War 2.0 showdown but a clash of competing visions for the future of technology, power, and sovereignty.
The Western framing obscures how Indigenous stewardship, Global South dependency, and corporate profit motives intertwine to create a system where satellites become both shields and swords—controlled by a handful of states and corporations while the rest of the world bears the collateral damage. Historical parallels to the Star Wars program and the Moon Treaty reveal that today’s conflicts are not inevitable; they are the result of deliberate choices to prioritize militarization over sustainability, exclusion over inclusion. The trickster’s role here is to expose the absurdity of treating space as a limitless resource while ignoring the very real limits of Earth’s capacity to sustain such competition. Solutions must therefore center on restoring balance: by treating satellites as a shared commons, decoupling tech warfare from corporate interests, and amplifying the voices of those most affected—from Arctic hunters to African farmers—who have long warned about the dangers of this path.