Sara Hadley

Since January 2024, Sara Hadley is PhD Fellow at IFSH. Before that, she worked as a researcher at IFSH within the framework of the graduate programme "Democratising Security in Turbulent Times". Prior to joining IFSH, she worked as a Resident Fellow at the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) in Vienna, focusing on various space policy issues, in particular Japanese space policy and European industrial policy for space. Previously, she completed her Master's degree in Global Crime, Justice and Security at the University of Edinburgh with a focus on security in space.

For decades, data from communication, navigation, and Earth-observation satellites have served a variety of purposes. They have become an established part of government security infrastructures worldwide. Increasingly, these data are becoming more accessible to other, non-state actors. In her dissertation, Sara Hadley analyzes how non-governmental organizations (NGOs) use satellite data for security-related missions. These missions can take place in humanitarian crises, for example, or have as their goal the observation and documentation of human rights violations. In particular, Sara Hadley is interested in the extent to which the use of these data by non-state actors contribute to the process of democratizing security.