A Global Space Control Strategy

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January 1, 2015

Disturbingly, the strategy laid out in Dr. B. T. Cesul’s article “A Global Space Control Strategy” (November–December 2014) essentially is a throwback to the “space dominance” policies and ambitions set out by the administration of President George W. Bush, following from the 2001 Rumsfeld Space Commission report. Furthermore, the strategy it espouses is just as unobtainable and undesirable now as it was then. Ironically, the article itself cites several of the key reasons why. First, the United States is the most vulnerable to “space war” because of the disproportionate (versus other space powers) reliance of the US military and intelligence community on space assets. However, counter to the article’s assumptions, an offense-dominant strategy that involves destructive antisatellites and space-based weapons will not fundamentally reduce this vulnerability.