![]() ![]() Out of this competition several arms races resulted to include both a nuclear one and, closely behind, one in space. Our modern space capabilities resulted from the evolution of Cold War–era technology and the “ space race.” Given the devastating effects of nuclear weapons at the end of World War II and the development of those weapons by both the United States and the Soviet Union as the two remaining superpowers at the end of the war, a competition for technological superiority took shape between the two nations. War is a contest of wills between human competitors, and historically these contests take place wherever humans operate and interact. ![]() Joe Strange and Colonel Richard Iron note, “experienced practitioners of the operational art aim to identify the enemy’s center of gravity and its critical vulnerabilities, then concentrate superior combat power to exploit those critical vulnerabilities, thereby forcing the enemy’s culmination and so achieve decisive success.”Īs we look to space and cyber as newly recognized domains of warfare, we must remember these concepts apply to all human conflicts. Rather than directly attacking this strength, as Dr. As Sun Tzu stated: “So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak.” Clausewitz later introduced the concept of centers of gravity, which are the moral or physical strength of the combatants. Smart practitioners of warfare seek to achieve victory by attacking their enemy’s perceived weaknesses. As Clausewitz puts it, “War is thus an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will”-and advancements in technology have opened up new domains, like space and cyber, to enable us to achieve those aims. In war, the goal is to force the enemy to accept terms that favor the victor. It is about dominating an enemy.Īs technology has evolved over time, so too has our reach into new domains-the surface and subsurface of the seas, the air, and now space and cyberspace. Dominating in war is not about dominating a domain. War is a competition between adversaries, a contest of action and counteraction that concludes or changes based on the agency of competitors, and this competition unfolds in the domains accessible to each competitor: land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace. James Carafano describes how this plays out across the various domains: When political leaders cannot achieve their objectives through peaceful means, they turn to war as a means to a policy end. The United States did recently formally recognize space as a new warfighting domain, but in order to understand why this happened it is necessary to examine the history of warfare and human activity in the space domain.Īs Clausewitz would remind us, “War is merely the continuation of policy by other means.” Simply put, war is an extension of politics. Regardless of how these moves may look to some, as someone who was a party to the discussions surrounding these decisions, I can confidently say that they were not taken lightly, nor were they aimed at establishing the United States as the aggressor in the space domain. Much of this discussion has been driven by the founding of the United States Space Force and reestablishment of the United States Space Command. Over the past few years, there has been a huge uptick in public discourse about the “ militarization of space”-a phrase that may sound concerning, but it is also nothing new.
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