Global instability is the core issue in an international context. One country's pursuit and deployment of space weapons is destabilizing from the perspective of both foe and friend. Weaponization could prompt adversaries to develop ASAT or space-based weapons. In the extreme case, a peer competitor might engage in an escalatory arms race. Probably a greater threat, however, is dispersed, low-level proliferation. A number of countries are capable of building limited ASAT or rudimentary space weapons, and might choose to do so. The wide proliferation of micro-satellites or other ASAT weapons would threaten all space assets, due to the varying (and perhaps unpredictable) motivations of countries that could obtain them. Those countries capable of posturing space weapons are generally those that have the most assets to lose in a space war. The acquisition of such weapons might well present an irresistible first-strike opportunity for a country unlikely to win in a conventional conflict. Other adversarial states, especially those incapable of building space weapons or achieving parity in conventional forces, might increase their efforts to acquire nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, or pursue other asymmetric activities (e.g. terrorism).

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