The Perilous Gulf between National Space Strategy and International Security

Damon Coletta

doi:10.1080/14777622.2010.523301

Coletta, Damon

2010-12-03 00:00:00

Astropolitics, 8:140–142, 2010 Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1477-7622 print=1557-2943 online DOI: 10.1080/14777622.2010.523301 The Perilous Gulf between National Space Strategy and International Security DAMON COLETTA United States Air Force Academy In his article on ‘‘Space and Strategy: A Conceptual versus Policy Analysis,’’ James Clay Moltz lays out four criteria for evaluating national space strategy. Such a strategy needs to articulate an overarching purpose for the use of space; it needs to account for the response of other actors in the global system; it must heed the financial constraints imposed by increasing concern over the national debt; and finally, it must meet the threshold of environmen- tal sustainability. These recommendations make a good deal of sense, especially when one considers that the legacy documents of National Space Policy under some critical interpretations do not score particularly well against such requirements. It remains to be seen how the Obama Administration’s new National Space Policy of 28 June 2010, in the context of national security and federal budget crises, will employ Moltz’s leitmotif (‘‘guiding motif’’) of strategic restraint in the pursuit of national interest. Even if eminently rational, however, strategic restraint involves risks, both at the level of meeting

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