What is Spacepower and Does it Constitute a Revolution in Military Affairs?

Authors

  • Lt. Col. Peter L. Hays USAF, Executive Editor of Joint Force Quarterly

Abstract

This paper addresses the first question in its title by examining ways to describe and categorize space activities. It examines the second question by using analogies between previous revolutions in military affairs and spacepower. It describes spacepower three ways: 1) space activity sectors (civil, commercial, intelligence, and defense); 2) military space mission areas (space support, force enhancement, space control, and force application); and 3) Lupton’s four military space doctrines (sanctuary, survivability, control, and high-ground). It also discusses other ways to view space: as an economic center of gravity and a global utility, in terms of seapower and airpower analogies, as a frontier, and in terms of religious implications and the Overview Effect. The paper argues that spacepower will not represent an autonomous revolution in military affairs until space is weaponized.

Author Biography

Lt. Col. Peter L. Hays, USAF, Executive Editor of Joint Force Quarterly

Lt Col Peter L. Hays is Executive Editor of Joint Force Quarterly. He was formerly a professor at the School of Advanced Airpower Studies (SAAS) at Maxwell AFB, Alabama and a Director of the USAF Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). Hays holds an MA and PhD in International Relations from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. He is a contributing coeditor of American Defense Policy (1997); Countering the Proliferation and Use of Weapons of Mass Destruction (1998); and "Spacepower for a New Millennium (2000); and author of INSS Occasional Paper 42 “United States Military Space” (Air University Press, September 2002).

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Issue

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2002): Fall 2002

Section

Articles