For space assets to truly exploit their presence and influence upon states, the United States must demonstrate a willingness to use its space presence to some end (e.g., release objective information about other states’ questionable behavior or enable a terrestrial attack to punish a state for aggressive behavior in violation of international law). Interestingly, as the United States purposefully and publicly uses the other components of space assets’ diplomatic power to increase diplomatic advantage, the ability of American space assets to exert presence will increase. States will not be concerned about space assets if their presence does not potentially lead to some negative consequence. The choice of whether to make these consequences real lies completely with the United States. As stated by Billman, “Except for very few potential adversaries, most have limited to no capability to realize the existence of United States space forces in effective position. Therefore, the ability of United States space forces to project real presence is restricted to demonstrating capability; that is, supplying ‘proof’ to the adversary it exists and can be effective.”

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Whiting, Stephen N. Policy, Influence, and Diplomacy: Space as a National Power Element. Maxwell AFB, AL: USAF Air University, June 2002. [ 2 quotes ] [ page 76 ]