Working With the 'Enemy': Space Collaboration Amidst Geopolitical Rivalry.

Although scholars have long noted the strategies to manage the regulatory, technical, and cultural barriers to cross-border collaborations, knowledge of the processes that facilitate collaboration between organizations embedded within geopolitical rivalry is scanty. To understand the mechanisms that promote this important, yet understudied form of collaboration, we conduct a historical case study of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, a collaboration between the space programs of the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Our study demonstrates that the antagonistic governments attempted to restrict interactions between the organizations to a more formal, 'supervised' space, which nonetheless reinforced the regulatory, technical, and cultural barriers. Noting the limitations of the politically controlled space, organizational members gradually developed a more informal, 'free' space, built on open exchange, common ground, and interpersonal trust. We observe the interplay of these spaces, including the boundary work to create and maintain the autonomy of the free space outside of political control, and the translation work to exchange problems and solutions between these spaces and overcome the politicized barriers to collaboration. We advance the literature on cross-border collaboration by showing how free spaces can be used against the divisive forces of geopolitical rivalry to support successful partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]