In his 1961 farewell address, US President Eisenhower coined the term “military-industrial complex,” referring to the coalescing of military, industrial, and political interest groups. In contemporary Europe, the military-industrial complex is arguably transforming into a complex with a noteworthy commercial civilian dimension, blurring traditional military and arms-focused understandings of European defence and security. Our emphasis on an added corporate civilian component captures the expansion of defence and security beyond the traditional military domain. Coalescing of industry and politics is observed in Europe, blurring the military-civilian divide, technologically as well as in organization and governance, particularly through public-private partnerships. Eisenhower, himself a decorated WWII general, warned of how the US military-industrial complex could lead to “disastrous use of misplaced power.” Rather than reiterating such a conclusion in the European context, our paper examines how the European military-civilian-industrial complex is emerging, looking at how elite participants shape the public-private structure of the complex, and specifically how policies on dual-use and emerging technologies influence developments in Europe. The focus herein is on novel actors, characteristics, and the European Union and charts out defining conceptual features of the defence and security industry in Europe

Whereas the rise of private space entrepreneurship is indisputable, we contend that contrary to the “NewSpace” narrative, the development of privately owned and operated human spacefaring does not dispel or fundamentally alter the American space dream, but rather implies continuity of the narrative of America as the dominant global space power, specifically regarding a return to the Moon and with the explicit aim of colonizing Mars. Herein, we analyze the continuity of the American space dream and how it is expressed by public and private space actors, as well as being supported by popular culture, entertainment, and an active space enthusiast community. We maintain that the continuity of the American space dream as a unifying national narrative is facilitated by how private spacefaring is dependent on the U.S. Government’s emphasis on the pivotal role of private space industry for space exploration. This dependent relationship provides incentives for private space entrepreneurs to share and leverage the established American space dream. The continuity of the American space dream is achieved through a prevailing, yet reconfigured, government-industrial complex.

This chapter addresses the rise of the ‘computer nerd’ – a powerful yet under-researched actor in International Relations (IR). Software programmers, algorithm writers, Artificial Intelligence (AI) designers, digital network engineers, computer system administrators and other ‘computer nerds’ have tremendous power in the global information society. These types of experts and epistemic communities design, build, develop, monitor, augment and analyse computer networks, algorithms and ‘Big Data’ upon which contemporary politics, civil society and economies depend. We contend that the computer nerd stereotype – variously anchored to some degree in empirics, reputation and celebration as stereotypes typically are – has significant power in shaping global information society, something which begs scrutiny of this type of actor in IR. The type of expert power maintained by computer nerds is primarily of a system-shaping rather than relational kind. This system-shaping power consists of three subsets of nerd power: ‘design power’ that shapes the digital platforms and applications used by individuals and organisations; ‘connecting power’ that shapes the networks which allow real-time communication and digitalisation of infrastructure; and ‘analytical power’ which controls and produces knowledge of the digital world, including the increasing use of ‘Big Data’.

How is outer space perceived in contemporary Russian politics and popular cul-ture? This question is addressed through an analysis of post-Soviet Russian space policy and Russian popular culture, the latter concerning e.g. space museums, movies and literature. By looking both at Russian space policy (operated mainly through the Russian state corporation Roscosmos) and at expressions in popular culture, a wide plethora of ideas and visions of cosmos and Russia’s place in space is observed. Patterns of continuity and change are observed in both realms, and link-ages between politics and popular culture are noted. Expressions of Soviet nostal-gia exists, but there is also a widespread perception of Russia as a weakened space power, seeking to maintain space exploration capacity rather than to take a global lead. In contemporary popular culture, there is also a new diversity of space visions, ranging from postcolonial critique of Soviet and contemporary Russian space policy to global liberal notions and new imperial visions.

What are the consequences of making cyberspace increasingly reliant on satellites and other types of space infrastructure? And what is the meaning and significance of an interplanetary cyberspace? The chapter addresses these developments specifically concerning infrastructure, militarization, and privatization. The consequences observed are summed up as fragmentation, vulnerability, and uncertainty. Cyberspace in space implies fragmentation in terms of stakeholders and governance, and ultimately in terms of power and accountability. Vulnerability increases as cyberspace becomes satellite-based (space is certainly not a safe environment, and satellites can be attacked by anti-satellite weapons as well as new forms of hacking and denial of service. Uncertainty of is tremendous particularly both in terms of what norms and principles will apply (compare the debate on Internet freedom vs. Internet sovereignty), and whether militarization or civilian and even utopian ideas will prevail.

Sweden’s management of the coronavirus pandemic, beginning in early 2020, hasbeen much discussed because it deviated from other countries’ equivalents. Set inthe context of scholarly debate about the balance between politicians and experts inpolitical decision-making, we argue that a necessary condition for this case of Swedishexceptionalism was the manner of policy-making adopted by the Swedish authorities. Inthis article, we describe this policy-making procedure, which involved a radical form ofdelegation by elected politicians to appointed experts, and seek to explain how it cameabout. We focus on the 1st year of the pandemic, and use media reports and other publicdocuments, including parts of a public inquiry, as our empirical material.

Whereas the rise of private space entrepreneurship is indisputable, this paper contends that contrary to the “NewSpace” narrative, the development of privately owned and operated human spacefaring  does not dispel or fundamentally alter the American space dream but rather implies continuity of the narrative of America as the dominant global space power, specifically regarding a return to the Moon and with the explicit aim of colonizing Mars. The present paper analyzes the continuity of the American space dream and how it is expressed by public and private space actors as well as being supported by popular culture, entertainment, and an active space enthusiast community. The paper maintains that the continuity of the American space dream as a unifying national narrative is facilitated by how private spacefaring is heavily dependent on the US government’s emphasis on the pivotal role of private space industry for US-led space exploration. This dependent relationship provides incentives for private space entrepreneurs to share and tap into the established American space dream. The continuity of the American space dream is achieved through a prevailing yet reconfigured government-industrial complex.