Few scattered responses today regarding the big policy announcement yesterday, I’ll keep updating this post as necessary:
Theresa Hitchens of the Center for Defense Information has an essay up on Defensetech.org analyzing the new policy. She finds that despite administration attempts to downplay the impact of the new policy, it still indicates a significant shift towards the weaponization of outer space:
While the new NSP doesn’t go as far as some space hawks wanted it to in openly endorsing the strategy of fighting “in, from and through” space, neither has it served to put a blanket – even a thin one – on those ambitions. And in taking a decidedly “us against them” tone, it is likely to further cement the view from abroad that the United States has taken on the role of a “Lone Space Cowboy.”
Michael Katz-Hyman at the Henry L. Stimson Center agrees, arguing that:
[On] balance, the new policy clearly shifts toward an emphasis on the Air Force’s freedom of action in space. The new policy will reinforce international perceptions that the US may choose to develop, test, or deploy space weapons, while reaffirming the administration’s rejection of negotiations or even discussions on space security.
He goes futher to do a side-by-side comparison of key passages in the 1996 space policy and the new one to show the shift.
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