Science and Technology Studies Commons^™

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.

Managing Criminalized Power Structures: The Predominant Spoilers Of Peace Processes, Michael Dziedzic

Space and Defense

Criminalized Power Structures (CPS) exploit illicit wealth acquisition to usurp political power and constitute a leading source of obstruction when the international community intervenes in states struggling to emerge from civil conflict. Structures operating outside domestic or international law may constitute a crucial barrier or spoiler for UN and coalition peace operations. This held true in the post-Cold War interregnum before 9/11 and is likely to continue for stabilization operations, regardless of outcomes from enormous international security investments in Afghanistan and Iraq. By understanding the different types of spoilers acting across cases, the United States and partners in the international …

Legislating For Humanity's Next Step: Cultivating A Legal Framework For The Mining Of Celestial Bodies, Joseph Crombie

Space and Defense

Rapid expansion in the space sector by state and private sector actors highlights the need for a new legal regulatory framework, particularly regarding property rights. The exploitation of space-based resources through the mining of asteroids is currently subject to a cold-war era international agreement that did not include clear consideration about how future off-world commercial exploitation might be regulated or property rights assigned. This article explores two empirical examples, the International Seabed Authority and the International Telecommunication Union, to determine whether they provide useful models of a future international legal framework for off-world property rights.

The Russian Sapce Sector: Adaptation, Retrenchment, And Stagnation, Bruce Mcclintock

Space and Defense

Senior Leader Essay

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia focused on its public space sector and consciously chose not to cultivate competitive, private space companies. Russia’s overall space enterprise is now in systemic crisis due to multiple factors and, despite positive rhetoric from the government and with the partial exception of national security space capabilities, faces yet another generation of stagnation.

Editor's Note Volume 10 No.1, Damon Coletta

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents Volume 10 No.1, Space And Defense

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Front Matter Volume 10 No.1, Space And Defense

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Notes For The Contributors, Space And Defense

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Tom Nichols, The Death Of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge And Why It Matters (Ny: Oxford University Press, 2017) 252 Pp., Damon Coletta

Space and Defense

This review is dedicated to Lt Gen (ret.) Brent Scowcroft, twice National Security Advisor and one-time head of the Department of Political Science, U.S. Air Force Academy. If he is looking down on our work today, we hope he liked this book, Death of Expertise, by a much admired Naval War College professor and enjoyed our department’s enthusiasm for participating in the conversation. Thank you, Gen Scowcroft (1925-2020).

Naval War College professor Tom Nichols built upon his popular essay in the Atlantic to deliver a blunt warning.1 After a venomous election in 2016 that swept the incumbent party from power, …

Cadet Voice: Extended Deterrence And Resilience In The Baltic States, Liam J. Connolly

Space and Defense

The following USAFA cadet independent study was supported by the Academy’s Nuclear Weapons & Strategy minor and the Cadet Summer Language Immersion Program to Lithuania. With minor formatting changes, the paper here appears as submitted to the USSTRATCOM Larry D. Welch Writing Award and the summer Deterrence Symposium (Omaha, NE), July 31-Aug. 1, 2019, where it won junior division, first place.

Since the end of the Second World War the United States has practiced extended deterrence as a means of resisting Russian expansion and aggression. In Europe, the US has done this with the support of the North Atlantic Treaty …

Cadet Voice: Artificial Intelligence And Stability In Nuclear Crises, Marshall D. Foster

Space and Defense

The following USAFA cadet independent study, with the exception of minor grammatical corrections, is produced as presented at the winter conference of the Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI), Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, D.C., Dec. 11, 2019 (https://www.csis.org/events/poni- 2019-winter-conference).

Technological advances in artificial intelligence (AI) by the United States, China and Russia jeopardize the longstanding nuclear peace that the world has enjoyed since the end of the Cold War.1 The desire to obtain AI capabilities for the purpose of strengthening defense and security postures could spur a new arms race among these powerful nuclear states, and the United …

Deterrence In Cyberspace: A Game-Theoretic Approach, Abderrahman Sokri

Space and Defense

This novel application of the Stackelberg leader-follower game from economic theory illuminates situational constraints that point to a sweet spot, an optimal level of investment in cyber defense, for deterrence by denial.

Deterrence is a form of persuasion intended to manipulate the cost-benefit analysis of would-be attackers and convince them that the cost of taking an action against the defender outweighs its potential benefit (Brantly, 2018; Wilner, 2017).1 It is the prevention (of a target) from committing unwanted behavior by fear of the consequences (United States (US) Department of Defense (DoD), 2008; Taipale, 2010). Deterrence differs from compellence by focusing …

Duffer's Drift And Space Operations, Roger Wortman

Space and Defense

Defence of Duffer’s Drift, a popular Boer War tale among British infantry officers, teaches lessons for the future of space operations.

Published in the early 20th Century, The Defence of Duffer's Drift is a work of fiction written as an educational tool for small unit leaders. The novella outlines the experiences for a young lieutenant and his tumultuous path to success when charge with defending key terrain. Told through a series of dreams, Duffer's Drift provides multiple tactical lessons through and iterative process, each building on the previous sequence. The officer fails multiple times while learning from various mistakes while …

As Delivered Remarks General John E. Hyten, John E. Hyten

Space and Defense

Senior Leader Voice

…I always thought, many times as I look back, if life would have been different if I’d gone to the Air Force Academy because one of the big advantages you guys are about to experience as you go into the world, into the United States Air Force, is that you will have a support structure built in from the day you come into the service. You will have this group of people that you had a common experience with for your four years. As you go through that structure you will have that common bond that will …

Editor's Note Vol. 12 No. 1, Damon Coletta

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents Vol. 12 No. 1, Space And Defense

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Front Matter Vol. 12 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: Aaron F. Brantly, The Cyber Deterrence Problem (Rowman & Littlefield International, Ltd. 2020), 202pp., Yen Huynh

Space and Defense

The usage of cyberwarfare has become increasingly prevalent in the global landscape, but there remains a lack of cohesive strategies and policies surrounding cyber deterrence. Aaron Brantly and a team of scholars specializing in different disciplines team up to develop the outline for a robust deterrence strategy concerning cyberspace. Brantly is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Virginia Tech. He is also a Senior Research Scientist at the Army Cyber Institute at the United States Military Academy, West Point. In his book, he proposes different approaches that can and should be utilized to enhance deterrence in cyberspace.

Deterring Terroists Organizations In Times Of A Global Pandemic: An Arguement For An Indirect Approach To Deterring Terrorism, Grant Van Robays

Space and Defense

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted nearly every facet of life across the world. While the United States is the world's social, economic, and political powerhouse, it is no exception to the indiscriminate virus. The U.S. faces economic volatility, social unrest, political polarization, and a devastating loss of American life due to the pandemic. To make matters worse, these crises leave the U.S. vulnerable to opportunist terrorist organizations at home and abroad, who may seek to take advantage of these vulnerabilities, whether perceived or real. While the pandemic appears to be slowing down both in the U.S. and abroad, the vulnerabilities …

Hypersonic Weapons: Strategic Drivers And Policy Proposals, Jonah S. Bhide

Space and Defense

Whether it is troop movement across terrain, the performance of military aircraft, or the time required responding with national force, speed has always been a critical element in securing U.S. national security objectives. Indeed, Sun Tzu acknowledged that speed is the essence of war, and an essential component in speed is technology. Emerging technologies influence and alter strategic analyses as they are developed and deployed.

Lieutenant General Ret. H.R. Mcmaster, Usafa Assembly Keynote Adress: National Security And American Polarization: The Competition For Truth, H. R. Mcmaster

Space and Defense

Thank you for the great privilege of joining you for the Academy Assembly and thanks, especially, for your decision to serve your country and your fellow servicemen and women during what, I believe, is a time of growing danger to American security, prosperity, and influence in the world. But I am confident that you will make significant and lasting contributions across a career of service and help build a better future for generations of Americans to come.

Nuclear Planning In An Uncertain World, Brooke Mitchell

Space and Defense

...research is called for on what type of thermonuclear war might eventuate, and on the possible volume of material destruction and loss of human life that might occur in varying hypothetical attack situations.

The 2018 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) emphasizes a return to great power competition in a world that is no longer preoccupied by violent Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East and Central Asia. 2 Great power politics are back in style, as the Trump administration made clear. In the post-Cold War era, the United States Department of Defense is focused on modernizing its nuclear enterprise in the face …

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 …