Since the wall dividing the Germanies came down, symbolically marking the end of the Cold War, three new movements have become clear in the strategic planning of the more powerful nations: (1) regional issues are supplanting global ones; (2) roles and missions for the armed forces are changing; (3) the balance between military and economic strength is shifting toward the economic. The United States is experiencing major changes in all three areas. With the third area in particular, U.S. planners urgently need new policies to exploit technological advantages in general, and the military uses of civil space in particular.  Plowshares and Power offers a framework for creating such policy alternatives. It examines future possibilities in three military applications of civil space: remote sensing, communication, and navigation. In suggesting a new mix of strategies for each application, it finds a single common basis rooted in the changing balance of strength between the military and the economic-namely, export controls of new technology. It offers a detailed model as a standard for a new technology policy-one that would help create technology advantage, preserve it, and maintain control over technology transfer.  Colonel Preston's work cuts through the complexities and uncertainties of the issues he addresses. His vision is to sustain our critical military advantage in advanced space technologies and, by so doing, maintain the powerful economic force of U.S. commercial growth in these technologies. He envisions a controlling strategy in which military power and economic power are not competitive with each other but synergistic. He offers an alternative to a long-standing policy of stringent control of the spread of space technologies through transfer, suggesting instead multilateral approaches that would strengthen the U.S. economy, control proliferation technology, and improve the overall security of the nation.     Ervin J. Rokke     Lieutenant General, USAF     President, National Defense University

Plowshares and Power: The Military Use of Civil Space

Science & Math

Preston, Bob

Astronomy & Space Science

Natl Defense Univ Pr

<p>Space weapons have been debated intensely in the past. The latest instance of prominent debate is over their use for ballistic missile defense. But this is not the only possible role for space weapons, and that fact raises a further concern: What if an adversary were to develop such weapons? Could one? Why would it? It is time for broader public discussion of the issues. Before deciding to acquire or forgo space weapons for terrestrial confict, the United States should fully discuss what such weapons can do, what they will cost, and the likely consequences of acquiring them. The authors of this report seek to aid this discussion not by arguing for or against space weapons but by describing their attributes, classifying and comparing them, and explaining how each might be used. The authors also explore how a nation might decide to acquire such weapons and how other nations might react.</p>

Space Weapons, Earth Wars

Technology

RAND Corporation

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