Space for Diplomacy
Space for Diplomacy
Podcast Description
Space for Diplomacy™ is a podcast hosted by Dr. Susmita Mohanty, the trailblazing Director General of Spaceport SARABHAI, India’s foremost space policy think tank.
Each episode features in-depth conversations with former heads of space agencies, senior diplomats who have shaped international treaties, eminent legal minds advising governments, and leading technologists at the forefront of innovation — exploring complex, ever-evolving themes such as geopolitics, technology diplomacy, international cooperation, and all things space.
The podcast tracks the rise of eastern space powers, fractures in multilateral institutions, and the growing influence of private industry. Its mission is to critically revisit the 20th-century space narrative and craft a new one — balanced across hemispheres and attuned to shifting geopolitics, power realignments, and a new world order.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast delves into themes such as geopolitics, technology diplomacy, and international cooperation, with episodes that include discussions on the rise of eastern space powers, multilateral institutional fractures, and private sector influence. Specific examples include detailed explorations of nuclear technology's role in international disarmament efforts and the evolution of space treaties.
Space for Diplomacy™ is a podcast hosted by Dr. Susmita Mohanty, the trailblazing Director General of Spaceport SARABHAI, India’s foremost space policy think tank.
Each episode features in-depth conversations with former heads of space agencies, senior diplomats who have shaped international treaties, eminent legal minds advising governments, and leading technologists at the forefront of innovation — exploring complex, ever-evolving themes such as geopolitics, technology diplomacy, international cooperation, and all things space.
The podcast tracks the rise of eastern space powers, fractures in multilateral institutions, and the growing influence of private industry. Its mission is to critically revisit the 20th-century space narrative and craft a new one — balanced across hemispheres and attuned to shifting geopolitics, power realignments, and a new world order.
Dr. Susmita Mohanty in conversation with Juan Francisco Salazar, joining from Sydney, about socio-technical imaginaries, media anthropology, cultural responses, social studies, ethics, ecology in the context of Outer Space, and analogue extreme environments here on Earth – such as Antarctica and Atacama.
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Biography: Juan Francisco Salazar
Juan Francisco Salazar is Director (Interim) of the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University in Australia where is Professor of Media and Environment and past Australian Research Council Future Fellow (2020-2024). He holds a PhD in Communication and Media from Western Sydney University and a Bachelor’s in Anthropology from the University of Chile.
Juan’s latest books are the co-edited collection Routledge Handbook of Social Studies of Outer Space (Routledge 2023); the co-authored book Antarctic Cities: From Gateways to Global Custodians (University of Nebraska Press, 2026) and the authored book Space Futures Otherwise (forthcoming with Routledge). Juan’s latest film is Cosmographies (2025) a collaboration with artist Victoria Hunt and produced in collaboration with the Indigenous Lickanantay Community of Toconao in Chile.
Available at RAI Film: https://raifilm.org.uk/films/cosmographies/.
Recorded on 18 February 2026
Published on 28 March 2026
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