On June 28, 2010, President Barack Obama revealed the nation’s National Space Policy. The new policy was vastly different than the previous administration’s policy. Areas of concern addressed in the 2010 policy included future direction for NASA missions, increased cooperation between nations, commercial and civilian use of space, and space as a contested environment. One of the biggest differences between President Obama’s policy and the policy of past administrations was the stance on weapons and conflict in space. No longer is the United States in a space race with the Soviet Union. Space is now a congested, contested arena where over 60 nations currently operate. This research paper will analyze the 2010 National Space Policy and identify the implications it has on space warfare. Prior to President Obama’s policy, the 2006 National Space Policy set forth by President Bush had an entirely different tone as far as space warfare is concerned. The 2006 policy laid out national security guidelines that spoke of global strategic warning, missile defense, denying adversary’s use of space, and intelligence collection. These statements are not found in the 2010 policy. Three techniques that have implications on space warfare that can be found in the 2010 space policy are transparency, cooperation, and arms control. The first implication that this policy has had on space warfare is transparency. Transparency, in the context of space policy, means being open about the activities any nation operating in space takes. It is difficult to use transparency as a means to prevent the weaponization of space because some of the biggest powers that have access to space are the least transparent. For example, North Korea is one of th... ... middle of paper ... ... Myers, Steven. “Russian Troops Mass at Border with Ukraine.” NY Times Website. March 13, 2014. Accessed May 15, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/14/world/europe/ukraine.html. Gruss, Mike. “Rogozin Calls for Ban On U.s. Military Use of Rd-180.” Spacenews Website. May 13, 2014. Accessed May 16, 2014. http://www.spacenews.com/article/military-space/40547rogozin-calls-for-ban-on-us-military-use-of-rd-180. Gertz, Bill. “New Space Arms Control Initiative Draws Concern.” The Washington Times Website. January 16, 2012. Accessed May 16, 2014. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/16/new-space-arms-control-initiative-draws-concern/?page=all. Shalal, Andrea. “Analysis Points to China's Work On New Anti-Satellite Weapon.” Reuter's Website. March 17, 2014. Accessed May 16, 2014. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/17/us-china-space-report-idUSBREA2G1Q320140317.
At the moment there is a ton of traffic in space and it is only building as more nations join the space faring ranks.14 This is a concern for every nation in space, as space forces are a foundational part to all military operations.15 Space Command is already a Major Command and it includes cyberspace which shows that it is important.16 With new technologies being developed and space travel becoming popular before the first public trip, it is only a matter of time till something happens and tensions rise.17 It is best to not wait for this to happen to make a change, and create the Space Force sooner rather than later.18 It is time just like when the Air Force was created from the Army Air Core as air power was the future, now space power is the future and it is time for the Space Force.19
After a few years since the publication of the “X” article, ‘containment’, the term that was coined by Keenan, became a key word to describe the U.S. foreign policy in overcoming Soviet threats. Yet, Keenan criticized Truman’s containment policy as ‘too universalistic’ in that it placed the U.S. in an exhausting commitment to block every Soviet expansion to free countries (Keenan, 1967). In fact, the containment policy was influencing the U.S. involvement in different confrontation from Germany to Vietnam.
The Space Race is remarkably similar to that of the arms race because of the parallel between the creation of the atomic bomb and the goal of reaching the moon. The United States’ bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki effectively established its place as the technologically superior nation; however, major milestones in space achieved early by the Soviets damaged America’s reputation. In 1957, Soviet scientists shocked the world by successfully launching the Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, beyond the Kármán Line (the boundary of space). This amazing breakthrough “rattled American self-confidence”. It cast doubts on America’s vaunted scientific superiority and raised some sobering military questions.”
Nolan, Janne E. 1999. An Elusive Consensus: Nuclear Weapons and American Security After the Cold War. Washington, DC: Brookings Institute Press.
Glynn, Patrick. Closing Pandora's Box "Arms Races, Arms Control, and the History of the Cold War". New York: HarperCollinsPublishers, Inc. 1992.
There is an ongoing debate on the issue of weaponizing space in order to protect our national space assets and achieve national strategic objectives. This is an issue because of the increase of more space faring nations trying to exploit the benefits of space and other nations also trying to develop capabilities to disrupt other from using it. This background paper will outline the current international laws and policies, our national policies in regard to space, current issues that catalyzed this debate, the benefits and disadvantage of weaponizing space.
Power in politics is control over governmental decisions. The number of nations with which the U.S. has diplomatic relations has increased; the world has also become a much more dangerous place. Our government must always be aware of the possibility of nuclear war. Yet, the mere existence of great powers with effective thermonuclear weapons would not vastly increase our rate of interaction with most other nations. We are interested in what happens everywhere because we see these events as connected with larger interests, involving the possibility of ultimate destruction. Given the overrriding fact that the world is dangerous and that small causes are percieved to ...
When Ronald Reagan was in the Presidency, he and his staff came up with the idea for a missile defense system that would defend the country in the event of a nuclear missile attack. This system was named "Star Wars" and the basic principal behind it was that it would be a shield that covered all fifty states. However, government officials soon realized that Reagan's defense system was impossible to build, so the program was dropped, but the idea to defend the country against a missile attack stuck around. Today, the U. S. Government is trying to build a new, more realistic missile defense system. However, not all the problems have been worked out, and the U. S. Government should not deploy their missile defense system without conducting further tests.
The United States of America is a powerful and well known force throughout the world. It has become a superpower of nations in just about three hundred years, being one of the newest nations in existence today. Its military reaches out into several countries in the globe and holds a presence as a peacekeeper and wielder of democracy. Of the US military’s five branches, the Air Force is the ruler of the skies, keeping control of the earth’s aerospace. Without the Air Force Special Operations, the military could not complete operations as effectively or efficiently as it potentially could. The United States Air Force is a key part of America’s mission to spread and assist democracy throughout the world.
It is within man’s blood and nature to explore, and space is our next New World. Man’s first achievement in space travel was the launch of the Sputnik on October 4, 1957. For the next decades, space travel was roaring like a rocket, fueled by man’s desire to explore, man’s desire for knowledge, and man’s desire to beat his enemies. However, these impulses have died out as the well of government funding has been diverted to wars and debts, and the interest of the American people has been diverted to wars and debts. Amidst all these issues it is debated as to whether or not space travel is worth the money and the attention of scientists, particularly since humanity faces so many issues on earth currently. However, because of the past inventions, current services, and future benefits, space travel is indeed worth the money and attention of governments and people. It is within our hands to control man’s advancement, and space travel is the next venue to do so.
"Why Crimea Is so Dangerous." BBC News. N.p., 11 Mar. 2014. Web. 05 Apr. 2014. .
The United States and the USSR emerged as super powers after WW11. The two countries were now the two most powerful nations on earth, but they had severe differences in policies and this led to a standoff between the two countries, a standoff which came to be known as the Cold War. At first the countries engaged in ArmsRace supremacy. Each nation wanted to create the most powerful bomb.A few years after another race began. It was a race for control of the outer space. This became known as the Space Race a period which lasted from 1957 to1975. The Space Race became a symbol of the political contest between two enemy world powers. For years the two super powers devised and plotted means and ways to get ahead of each other. Finally in October 1957, the USSR launched Sputnik into space. Thus began years of rivalry for control of outer space called the Space Race. This paper seeks to answer the question of which country won the Space Race.
In his speech of March 23, 1983, President Reagan presented his vision of a future where a Nation’s security did not rest upon the threat of nuclear retaliation, but on the ability to protect and defend against such attacks. The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) research program was designed to tell whether, and how, advanced defense technologies could contribute to the feasibility of this vision.
The National Space Policy has undergone changes throughout its new creation on August 31, 2006, under both the Obama administration and the Bush administration. The act originally was established for overarching national policies that governed the conduct of U.S space activities. President Dwight Eisenhower said “More than by any other imaginative concept, the mind of man is aroused by the thought of exploring the mysteries of outer space. Through such exploration, man hopes to broaden his horizons, add to his knowledge, improve his way of living on Earth.” With that statement, is where our time in space begins.
United Nations. "Speakers Warn Against Potential Outer Space Arms Race, as Fourth Committee Continue Debate." UNIS. United Nations Information Service, 2007. Web. .