Aerospace Engineering Commons^™

Book Review The Strategist: Brent Scowcroft And The Call Of National Security By Bartholomew Sparrow (Public Affairs, 2015), Schuyler Foerster

Space and Defense

A popular new biography pays overdue tribute to a living legend. Bartholomew Sparrow’s rich and detailed biography of Brent Scowcroft—a still very active and now nonagenarian—has been on bookshelves since early this year. Many, including those who have an intimate familiarity with some of the events and personalities in this book, have already offered thorough reviews of the work.

Terror On High: Deterring Asat, Stephen Shea, Mathew Johnson, Alfredo Zurita

Space and Defense

Student Contribution:

As technology becomes even more pervasive in daily life, valuable and relatively vulnerable space assets will inspire greater desire to attack U.S. power through space.1 As a result, Anti-Satellite (ASAT) deterrence, a fledgling area of study, will need to be developed and addressed in detail. The proceeding essay will attempt to answer the following questions. What motivates space attacks? How will the enemy try to attack our space assets? What can be done to deter future ASAT attacks?

Cyber Deterrence: Is A Deterrence Model Practical In Cyberspace?, Nathaniel Youd

Space and Defense

Student Contribution:

After reconsidering massive retaliation versus escalation dominance concepts from nuclear deterrence, escalation dominance, investing in capability to respond proportionally at each level of cyber attack, may be the most practical and effective military strategy for strengthening cyber deterrence.

Argentina Space: Ready For Launch, Daniel Blinder

Space and Defense

Desire for a comprehensive space program, one that includes an indigenous satellite launch capability, motivated Argentina to strengthen relevant policy institutions and carefully reconsider its approach in foreign affairs. In the process, this space power on the semi-periphery bridged bitter domestic partisan differences on the federal budget and allayed security fears of the international community, fulfilling at least some important national objectives regarding economic development as well as Argentinean access to space.

Cyberwar: Clausewitzian Encounters, Marco Cepik, Diego Rafael Canabarro, Thiago Borne Ferreira

Space and Defense

As Clausewitz’s masterpiece suggests, language matters for how states conceptualize and plan for war. ‘Cyberwar’, now on the lips of nearly every national security policymaker, may turn out to be a misnomer.

Strategic Nuclear Weapons For Planetary Defense, James Howe

Space and Defense

The planet Earth is continually under bombardment. Each day, roughly 100 tons of small meteoroids and space debris – some as large as a meter in diameter, but most smaller than a grain of sand – strike the atmosphere. Moving at speeds in excess of 40,000 kilometers per hour, these meteoroids are often seen as bright streaks in the sky as they burn up from atmospheric friction. Fortunately, because they are consumed high in the atmosphere, meteoroids and space dust pose no threat to humans or other life on Earth.

Editor's Note, Damon Coletta

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Space And Defense

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Front Matter Volume 8 No. 1, Space And Defense

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Notes For Contributors, Space And Defense

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Publisher’S Corner Space Policy’S Salt Moment, Roger G. Harrison

Space and Defense

The market for a leap forward in space arms control is open. Now, who’s buying? The United States is facing a fundamental decision about space policy which arises from a question: does our national interest in an ordered space environment trump our absolute insistence on a policy of freedom of action? Or is the looming threat of over-crowded orbits, frequency interference and debris – of contested, congested and competitive space – so pressing that we must accept some greater transparency for our national security space operations, even greater information sharing with China, Russia, and commercial space operators, and perhaps some …

Book Review Crowded Orbits: Conflict And Cooperation In Space By James Clay Moltz (Columbia University Press, 2014), Deron Jackson

Space and Defense

A popular space primer serves both the policy and academic communities. Human beings have perceived outer space as infinite for centuries, and since the observations of Edwin Hubble in the 1920s, scientists have studied phenomena that suggest the universe itself is expanding. However, as the title of Clay Moltz’s most recent book points out, the region of space most important to the economic and physical security of residents on Earth is increasingly viewed as far from infinite.

Meeting Growth Challenges Of Mexico Aerospace: The Queretaro Cluster, Monica Casalet

Space and Defense

Growing the Aerospace sector in Mexico requires multilevel agreement between original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), including foreign companies, and national and sub-national governments to stimulate programs and instruments for sector growth. In addition, space for local learning must be cultivated within a process of production organized hierarchically and highly regulated on the international level. The case of the Queretaro cluster is important due to the density of networks created, extensive public-private collaboration, and the emergence of specialized institutions to train and shape highly skilled (professionals and technicians) in the aerospace industry. Ultimately, there remains an important vacuum to fill in the …

Brazil Space: Military Dependency And The Case Of The Geostationary Satellite Of Defense And Strategic Communications, Gills Vilar Lopes

Space and Defense

In Brazil, there has been no transition model of space capabilities promoted by the military sphere (especially the Brazilian Air Force) for nurturing the civil one (Brazilian Space Agency). Drawing upon official documents and legislation as primary sources, the case study of the Geostationary Satellite of Defense and Strategic Communications (SGDC) is analyzed in light of the space strategic sector. Main factors that impede the PEB are related to military-technological dependence and poor resource management, with draconian budget cuts and projects canceled before having achieved realistic milestones.

Attack On The Brain: Neurowars And Neurowarfare, Armin Krishnan

Space and Defense

Is neurotechnology leading nation-states toward a new domain of war? Neuroscience is on the verge of deciphering the human brain. As a result, brains will become a part of the battlefield against which attacks will be directed. As neuroscientist James Giordano argued: “the brain is the next battlespace.” It is foreseeable that this will have tremendous implications for warfare and could amount to a true military revolution in the sense of military historian Williamson Murray: it would completely change the characteristics of conflict, as well as transform state and society.

Editor's Note Volume 9 No. 1, Damon Coletta

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents Volume 9 No. 1, Space And Defense

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Front Matter Volume 9 No. 1, Space And Defense

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Notes For Contributors, Space And Defense

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Cadet Voice: A Curious Trinity: War, Media, And Public Opinion, Laura Olson

Space and Defense

The following USAFA cadet Capstone project from spring 2017 won the Best Undergraduate Class Paper Award from the national Political Science honor society, Pi Sigma Alpha. The article appears, below, as submitted, with allowances for Space & Defense formatting.

August, 2012- President Obama drew a “Red Line” on chemical weapons use in Syria. Just over a year later, a UN report confirmed Syrian chemical use. Two words, spoken by the most powerful man in the world, generated massive media coverage. Around the world, news outlets and people everywhere looked for Washington’s reaction. Words are powerful because of the narrative they …

Arms Control And Deterrence In The Age Of Cross-Domain Coercion, Damon Coletta

Space and Defense

For deterrence, now, first seek arms control. The old relationship linking deterrence, defense, and arms control served U.S. policy makers for decades during the Cold War. It was manifest through the Spirit of Geneva (1955) and the Reykjavik Summit (1986). Much later, during the rise of cross-domain coercion and following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the same idea reemerged in NATO’s Warsaw Communique (2016).

Building Beyond Samba And Soccer: Why Brazil Ventured A Nuclear Program, Saint-Clair Lima Da Silva

Space and Defense

Contrary to conventional wisdom on Brazil as a case of nuclear proliferation, archival evidence indicates that, rather than geopolitical rivalry with Argentina, enduring desire for national autonomy—honor more than sword or shield—drove Brazil during the 1980s to master its own uranium enrichment cycle.

Communicating Cyber Consequences, Timothy Goines

Space and Defense

More consideration ought to be accorded “loud” cyber weapons for signaling resolve in 21st century deterrence contests.

“Deterrence is at times a necessary or useful instrument of foreign policy, but the correct and prudent use of deterrence strategy is by no means self-evident or easily determined in all circumstances.”

In their seminal text, Alexander L. George and Richard Smoke thoroughly examined the topic of deterrence, tracing its historical roots and conducting case studies on its use. The product of this intense study was a formula that encapsulates the essence of deterrence theory. “In its simplest form, deterrence is merely a …

China's Military Space Strategy: A Dialectical Materialism Perspective, Sam Rouleau

Space and Defense

China’s military space strategy accommodates in significant ways the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) ideological commitment to dialectical materialism. This Marxian commitment persists and manifests in China’s investment in space power despite the Party’s widely acknowledged development of state capitalism to guide China’s economy.

Editor's Note Volume 11 No. 1, Damon Coletta

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents Volume 11 No. 1, Space And Defense

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Front Matter Volume 11 No. 1, Space And Defense

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Notes For Contributors, Space And Defense

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Book Review: The Physics Of Wall Street: A Brief History Of Predicting The Unpredictable By James Owen Weatherall, Brian M. Kruchkow

Space and Defense

A USAFA graduate comments on predicting the unpredictable when surveying new spaces at the frontiers of defense policy.

James Owen Weatherall’s book about the robust interplay of Wall Street and physics is a captivating romp about select physicists as well as a lesson on how finance both succeeds and falls short when it applies mathematical models to predict economic behavior.1 Such a book is a surprising candidate for a review in Space and Defense. Yet the ideas Weatherall presents are innovative, and they offer a framework for thinking about the problems with which this journal is concerned. In fact, The …

Cadet Voice: Hypersonic Weapons' Effect On Stragetic Stability, Darren Sency

Space and Defense

Initial exploration of the relationship between new technologies and strategic stability finds that hypersonic weapons, regardless of which power deploys them, first, could raise the probability of nuclear war.