“China and Russia are still holding out hope for the PPWT – their proposed treaty for the prevention of placement of weapons in space, and they have said that a soft law approach can be complementary to it,” Samson says. “However, there is no way that the United States will agree to the PPWT. None. But I’m thinking that China and Russia’s clinging to it is more a matter of national pride than concern about space-based missile defense (which the PPWT would prevent).”