The simple unilateral posturing of space weapons creates global instability in the form of encouraging adversaries to respond symmetrically or asymmetrically, heightening tensions, while at the same time crippling alliances. In this less stable global environment, there is also the prospect of space weapons causing less stable regional environments. Integrating space weapons into military operations could have unexpected consequences for the progression of conflict situations, prompting significant regional instability. In most war games that include space assets, commanders discover that preemptively destroying or denying an opponent's space-based assets with space weapons is appealing, yet often leads to rapid escalation into full-scale war, even triggering nuclear weapons use. One commander commented: '[If] I don't know what's going on, I have no choice but to hit everything, using everything I have'. That this conclusion surprised strategists suggests that the full implications of space weapons have not yet been fully explored. What is common knowledge, derived from years of experience in futuristic war games, is that permanently based space weapons invite pre-emption and escalation. Local to a specific situation of heightened tensions, the existence of space weapons on one side, the other, or both could be the determining catalyst for escalatory war.

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Deblois, Bruce M. "The Advent of Space Weapons." Astropolitics. Vol. 1, No. 1 (Summer 2003). [ 15 quotes ]