U.S. Space Security Priorities: War, Policy, and Spacepower

Abstract

Space capabilities undergird the United States’ military future and the national security policies for space guide development and procurement. As the future is never as clear as a planner wishes, the policies are necessarily broad and, to some, indefensibly vague or provocative. This article traces development in the American way of war and discusses several of the more contentious space policy issues that will come to the fore in the next decades. These include increasing congestion, contestation, and competition in outer space and assessments of rules-of-the-road initiatives, cooperative partnering, space situational awareness, deterrence, and planetary defense.