Two new policy documents released in the United States cast light on what future war could look like, especially the central and entwined roles of missiles and outer space.
Looking ahead: Trends shaping space security in 2019
The world has entered a Second Space Age, marked by an intensification of our interactions and reach into outer space. A core part of the international Space Security Index project, managed by Project Ploughshares, is to look holistically at how states, companies, and people around the world access and make use of this domain. Looking to the year ahead, five …
Why the chances of conflict in outer space are going up
U.S. President Trump’s desire to create a Space Force—a new military branch focused solely on outer space operations—has drawn public attention to the prospects of warfare in a domain that has been used only for peaceful and passive purposes. Despite the provocative name, the proposed mission would in many ways be mundane: the command and control of spacecraft rather than …
Trump just announced the creation of a Space Force. Should we be concerned?
On Monday, U.S. President Trump was due to sign Space Policy Directive-3 on space traffic management. This was exciting to those of us who work on space governance, if not to many others. Then Trump announced that he would create a Space Force – a new branch of the U.S. military – and pointed to the chairman of the Joint …