Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Pakistan's Space Program: From Sounding Rockets To Satellite Setbacks, Sannia Abdullah

Space and Defense

Why did Pakistan struggle for 50 years to launch its satellites into Earth's orbit when it was Asia's third country to send sounding rockets into space? Four years ago, India launched 104 satellites from a single rocket to set a groundbreaking record, whereas Pakistan launched only six satellites with assistance in the design, built, launch, and even funding from China. Pakistan plans to send its first astronaut into space by 2022; India put its first astronaut into "space in 1984 as part of a Soviet-led mission." Despite a good head-start, why is Pakistan's space program decades behind when India's space …

Russian Development Of New Hypersonic Weapons: Drivers And Implications, Julia L. Diamond

Space and Defense

The Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START) is, at the time of writing, nearing its 5 February, 2021 expiration date. Both the U.S. and Russia have suspended their obligations under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. A renewal of New START would be the most logical future step that aids the cause of arms control. This is the option that requires the least political will and therefore might suit the current political climate. Nevertheless, the political relationship between the two countries …

Letter From The Editor, Michelle Black

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents Vol. 12 No. 2, Space And Defense

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Front Matter Vol. 12 No. 2, Space And Defense

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Liminal Legality, Social Exclusion, And The Island Community: The Uncertain Futures Of Brazilian Immigrant Youth In Martha’S Vineyard., Bárbara F. De Paula

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project explores the realities of Brazilian undocumented immigrant youth who entered the United States before the age of 18 and have settled in the island community of Martha’s Vineyard located in Massachusetts. This project analyzes the barriers that Brazilian undocumented youth encounter in pursuing their dream futures, in the light of their legal status and the island context. The theoretical frameworks used in the study drew from notions of segmented assimilation and modes of incorporation (Bean, 2011; Patler, 2018a), immigrant social networks (Assis, 2003; Padilla, 2006), liminal legality, (Cebulko, 2014; Menjíver, 2006; Patler, 2018a) citizenship frames, (Friorito, 2019; Patler, …

The Impact Of Political Polarization On Church Life In The Upper Midwest, Andrew Bramsen

Day of Scholarship

Political polarization in the USA has been rapidly increasing since the 1990s. During that same time period, demographic data has shown both a growing population of religious “nones” who no longer identify with a faith tradition and a declining influence for churches and church leaders as the political identities of American Christians becomes more and more central to who they are. This presentation explores this dynamic, examining how rising polarization is impacting church life by drawing on twenty-six interviews with upper Midwest pastors that the author conducted during his 2021 sabbatical. Across denominational lines and urban, rural and suburban contexts, …

Notes For Contributors To Space And Defense, Space And Defense

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Report Of The 62nd Air Force Academy Assembly

Space and Defense

In partnership with the Olmsted Foundation, ARDI-The Academic Excellence Foundation, United States Air Force Academy Endowment, USAFA Department of Political Science, and USAFA Association of Graduates, the United States Air Force Academy Department of Political Science hosted the 62nd Air Force Academy Assembly, 13-14 October, 2020 in Colorado Springs.

A total of 122 undergraduates from twenty-two colleges gathered virtually and in-person to engage experts from academia and civil society on American politics and national security. The event featured three plenary panel discussions and a Keynote Address by Lt. General (ret.) H.R. McMaster, published in Space & Defense Vol. 12, No. …

Review: A Fiery Peace In A Cold War: Bernard Schriever And The Ultimate Weapon By Neil Sheehan (New York: Random House, 2009), Paul Bolt

Space and Defense

A Fiery Peace in a Cold War is a fascinating book that focuses on the life of Air Force General Bernard Schriever and his competition with the Soviets to develop an ICBM that would prevent a nuclear Pearl Harbor.['􀀃] The story is wide-ranging, covering development of the bomb in both the United States and Soviet Union; the dynamics of the Cold War; Soviet and American espionage successes and failures; defense politics in the Eisenhower administration; and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Sheehan dives into the personalities, military officers and scientists, who contributed to the research and development of American weapon systems, …

Mcmaster's Master Work On Geopolitics And The Future Of America: A Review Of Battlegrounds: The Fight To Defend The Free World (Ny: Harpercollins, 2020), Noah Grady

Space and Defense

Student Voice

In his most well-known work, Vom Kriege, Carl von Clausewitz suggested war is a continuation of policy. He proposed governments primarily use warfighting to achieve political ends. Since America's independence in 1776, geopolitics have shaped the nature of America's conflicts overseas. In the last century, the U.S. endured several different geopolitical phases. Despite Woodrow Wilson's reelection slogan, "He kept us out of war," America involved itself in an eruption of imperial interests in Europe during the Great War. Two decades after the First World War, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese Naval Air Service attacked Pearl Harbor. President …

Efficacy Of The National Security Innovation Network's Hacking / Designing For Defense Programs, Max Di Lalla

Space and Defense

Student Voices

The National Security Innovation Network requires further reform to achieve its hope for long-term effects on defense innovation.

The National Security Innovation Network (NSIN) was crated in 2016 after a rebranding of the MD5 National Security Technology Accelerator and is actively changed with the mission to "build networks of innovators that generated new solutions to national security problems." NSIN is just one of the plethora of government organizations tasked with some form of "innovation." As the world begins to change and the United States no longer enjoys a period of unrivaled growth and security, government, military, and private …

Climate Change As A Dangerous Accelerant Of Mass Atrocity, Jesse Jenkins

Space and Defense

Student Voices

Investigating potential connections between mass atrocity and climate change reveals that the vulnerability of food systems may be valuable predictive factor in understanding which states will respond to climate change with violence.

An ongoing study by Dr. John Riley and Lt Col. William Atkins shows that strong states tend to be able to cope well with the effects of climate change and not turn to violence. They also argue that the weakest states are already broken and on the path of committing a mass atrocity regardless of the effects of climate change. This leave a middle section of …

No Method To Madness: The Failures Of Madman Diplomacy In All Its Forms, Henry Gilchrist

Space and Defense

Student Voices

Madman diplomacy fails to work as advertised. Internal contradiction of the strategy in it s ideal form reduce the chances it will succeed in future crises.

Effective deterrence requires an actor to pair powerful capabilities with a believable will to use them. The world of United States' dominance has relegated the question of will to the periphery. However, the U.S. is emerging from its hegemony with enough self-awareness to acknowledge the painful consequences of this relegation. Democratic restraint has historically played an important role in nuclear deterrence for obvious reasons, and the issue of will deficit is not …

Boosting Space Diplomacy At State, David A. Epstein

Space and Defense

Notes from the Field:

Space diplomacy remains an esoteric specialty of State.

With ever-increasing speed, humanity is expanding the scope of its activities in outer space, thanks to private enterprise as well as via national pursuits. In the last two years alone, for example, the number of active and defunct satellites in lower Earth orbit has increase by more than 50 percent, to around 5,000, with plans to add tens of thousands more in the coming years. Equally surprising, these satellites are owned and operated by nearly 100 difference countries and organizations around the world - no just the small …

Contextualizing Russia's Hypersonic Threat: Perceptions, Motivations, And Strategic Stability., Jeffery D. Taylor

Space and Defense

Rather than specific military objectives in Europe, Russian hypersonic missile development manifests deep-rooted perceptions of the United States and NATO undermining strategic through missile defense.

Future Directions For Great Power Nuclear Arms Control, T. Justin Bronder

Space and Defense

Extending the current New START regime can help maintain traditional strategic stability; however, such an approach fails to address destabilizing trends related to non-nuclear strategic technologies and China's expanding forces.

Arms control in the nuclear age has proved a useful tool of national security, meeting ends as diverse as reducing the risks of nuclear war to channeling strategic competition. Yet recent trends indicate arms control may be at an inflection point; the suitability of this tool in general and the viability of securing new agreements specifically are both unclear. The New Strategic Arms reduction Treaty (New START) extension somewhat reverses …

Editor's Note Vol. 13 No. 1, Damon Coletta

Space and Defense

Editor's Note

Table Of Contents Vol. 13 No. 1, Space And Defense

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Front Matter Vol. 13 No. 1, Space And Defense

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Challenges Of Accessibility Of A Community Heritage Tourist Route: The Route Of The Caste War, Cecilia S. Medina Martín, David E. Tamayo Torres, Margarita De A Navarro Favela, Fredi R. Un Noh

Journal of Maya Heritage

This article presents the results of an accessibility analysis of The Caste War Route (RGC), prior to its commercialization as a community heritage product. The analysis consists of a diagnosis of the resource to establish destination-planning strategies. The accessibility diagnosis goes beyond adapting physical spaces for transit, considering that the resource is accessible to all types of people, including economic, spatial and temporal accessibility, criteria on which the research focuses.

The diagnosis was prepared through a multidisciplinary investigation that collected information from different sectors with qualitative and quantitative tools that combined the recording of data and the opinion of the …

Partisan Selective Exposure On Social Media During The 2020 Presidential Election, Grayce Lemon

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

This study examines selective exposure and selective avoidance on social media during the 2020 presidential election. 147 voters participated in the survey conducted using Qualtrics. The purpose of this study was to understand whether selective exposure and avoidance behaviors differed based on voting outcome (Trump or Biden), and to test whether political ideological polarization was reflected in news consumption through social media. Taken together, the results indicate that although both voting bases engaged in selective exposure and avoidance, the propensity was the same between Trump and Biden voters. Additionally, results confirm existing hypotheses that strength of political ideology positively correlates …

Notes For Contributors, Space And Defense

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Spies, Lies, And Algorithms: The History And Future Of American Intelligence, Claire Benedix

Space and Defense

The security environment is entering a new threat landscape; one that must be fought in both the physical and virtual world. The seemingly instantaneous progress of digitization and the cyberspace domain threatens to destabilize traditional warfare strategies and intelligence norms. Amy Zegart, an American academic and leading national security expert, outlines the history and future of American intelligence with a specific emphasis on emerging cyber threats in the digital age. In Spies, Lies, and Algorithms, Zegart explains the roles of technological breakthroughs in a world of big data by chronicling the history of intelligence education and organizational reform, the evolution …

Communicating Deterrence Thresholds In Cyberspace Through Global Normas, Leila Yanni

Space and Defense

Student Contribution.

Cyberspace refers to a purely virtual arena that has become increasingly relevant in the past few years, as countries develop more cyber weapons and carry out more cyber attacks. The cyber domain has a large scope because of its virtual nature, and it has a high potential threat level as the full impact of cyber capabilities are not even understood yet. As the possibilities for destructive cyber weapons are virtually endless, the threats are also virtually endless. Because of the growing relevance of cyberspace and the high danger level, deterrence thresholds are a pressing issue in this domain. …

Us Blindness To Russian, Chinese Cultural Motives Risks Nuclear Escalation And Ill-Fit Response, Ryan C. Bushman

Space and Defense

Student Contribution.

This paper was authored prior to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the publication of the 2022 Nuclear Posture Review.

The United States has taken numerous miscalculated steps with respect to foreign and nuclear policy based on an incomplete understanding of the motives of both China and Russia. This is, in part, due to a failure to acknowledge these nations' strategic culture - an enduring system of values that influence a nation's use of military force. As the US is about to put forth its 2022 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), it is critical that future responses to …

Keynote Address: Dr. Kori Schake, Kori Schake

Space and Defense

2022 United Sates Strategic Command Academic Alliance Conference and Workshop, Mark 30-April 1, 2022, Conducted via Zoom

Addressing The American Approach To Emerging Technologies: Utilizing The Ai Arms Race To Highlight The Need To Develop Public-Private Partnerships In C4isr And 5g, Hugh Harsono, Nicholas Ondovcsik

Space and Defense

he world of emerging technologies has changed countries' access and placement to these digital enablement tools of the future, with blockchain, decentralization, and a myriad of other compounding technologies accelerating the pace of development and growth combining the physical and the digital world. Historically, America's Silicon Valley has led the world's development of new technologies, particularly during the latter part of the digital revolution. In contrast, China focused on enhancing its manufacturing capabilities, becoming a world leader by capitalizing on the ever-connected world and leveraging its economic prowess. These roles became reversed in the early-2000s,1 when China first surpassed the …

Technology: The Air And Space Force's Barrier To Innovation, William F. Cosgrove

Space and Defense

The Department of Defense is a rank-and-file institution that values orders adherence and a zero-error mentality, which has led commanders to be risk averse. This is exemplified in the cybersecurity realm, with controls attempting to protect all information, including uncontrolled unclassified information. Efforts that attempt to employ a new or different type of information technology are made very difficult by a number of existing policies. Additionally, customer surveys, service initiatives, and open user complaints have revealed dissatisfaction with Department of the Air Force (DAF) IT services. The millennial and post-millennial generations are the most technologically adept, yet the majority of …

A Great Nuclear Rejuvenation: What China Can Do With An Expanded Nuclear Arsenal, Grant Van Robays, Chloe Reynolds, Will Jackson, Tom Hammerle

Space and Defense

China's hypersonic glide vehicle test in October 2021 prompted widespread concern in the general public and within the defense intelligence community. General Mark A. Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the test was "very close" to a Sputnik moment.1 More than mere power projection by the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Chinese Communist Party ( CCP), the hypersonic test is an exemplification of rapid advancements in Chinese strategic nuclear forces writ large. Improved nuclear weapons capabilities will offer Beijing greater leverage in regional and international disputes with an increased capacity to coerce and compel adversaries into …