In Search of Global Security: Everett C. Dolman’s Astropolitik and Daniel Deudney’s Dark Skies

ABSTRACT

This essay is a conceptual and historical critique of the astropolitical proposals for global security in Everett C. Dolman’s Astropolitik: Classical Geopolitics in the Space Age (2002) and Daniel Deudney’s Dark Skies: Space Expansionism, Planetary Geopolitics, and the Ends of Humanity (2020). It focuses on the divergent views on space weaponization and world political order presented by the two authors. It reflects on previous critique of their work, examines strengths and weaknesses in their arguments, and highlights their shared common ground. The essay places their debate in a historical context by tracing the origins of the concept of space superiority and the Outer Space Treaty, and considers their ideas in relation to U.S. space policy in the 21st century. The critique concludes that the proposals advanced by both authors are problematic. In response, it suggests a rapprochement in the form of a United Nations Space Agency and Space Guard.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. UN General Assembly, 19 December 1966. A/RES/2222 (XXI).

2 Everett C. Dolman, Astropolitik: Classical Geopolitics in the Space Age (London: Frank Cass Publishing, 2002).

3 Ibid., 157.

4 Ibid., 156.

5 Ibid., 15.

6 Ibid., 33-37.

7 Alfred T. Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History: 1660–1783 (Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company, 1890), 25.

8 Dolman Astropolitik, 39.

9 Ibid., 34.

10 Halford J. Mackinder, Democratic Ideals and Reality [edited by and] with a new introduction by Stephen V. Mladineo (Washington, DC: National Defence University Press, 1996), 106

11 Everett C. Dolman, “Geostrategy in the space age: an astropolitical analysis,” Journal of Strategic Studies 22, no. 2-3 (1999): 93.

12 Dolman Astropolitik, 39.

13 Ibid., 157.

14 Ibid., 157-8. Earth space is the region from the lowest viable orbit to just beyond geostationary altitude (approx. 36,000km).

15 Ibid., 157.

16 Ibid., 179. The U.S. created a Space Force as an independent branch of the Armed Forces in 2019.

17 Daniel Deudney, Dark Skies. Space Expansionism, Planetary Geopolitics, & The Ends of Humanity (NY: Oxford University Press, 2020). I will also draw upon Daniel Deudney, “Whole Earth Security: A Geopolitics of Peace” (Worldwatch Paper 55, WorldWatch Institute, Washington, DC, 1983).

18 Deudney, Dark Skies, 30.

19 Ibid., 151.

20 Ibid., 313.

21 Ibid., 30.

22 Ibid., 7, 241.

23 Ibid., 248.

24 Ibid., 252

25 Ibid., 249.

26 Deudney, Whole Earth Security, 47.

27 Deudney, Dark Skies, 235.

28 Ibid., 133; 329.

29 Deudney, Dark Skies, 41.

30 Ibid., 232.

31 Dolman, Astropolitik, 181.

32 Deudney, Dark Skies, 369.

33 Ibid., 314.

34 Dolman, Astropolitik, 151.

35 Deudney, Dark Skies, 126-7.

36 Ibid., 320.

37 Deudney, Whole Earth Security, 44.

38 Dolman, Astropolitik, 181.

39 Ibid.

40 Deudney, Dark Skies, 243.

41 Dolman, Astropolitik, 140.

42 Ibid., 105.

43 Ibid., 130.

44 Deudney, Dark Skies, 244. Assessed in this critique below are claims that the OST was the product of a diplomatic struggle to prevent space superiority.

45 Jonathan Havercroft and Raymond Duvall, “Critical Astropolitics: the geopolitics of space control and the transformation of state sovereignty,” in Securing Outer Space, ed. Natalie Bormann and Michael Sheehan (London and New York: Routledge, 2009), 42-59: 45-7.

46 Havercroft and Duvall, Critical Astropolitics, 46.

47 Raymond Duvall and Jonathan Havercroft, “Taking Sovereignty out of this World: Space Weapons and Empire of the Future,” Review of International Studies 34, no. 4 (2008): 755-775: 770.

48 Havercroft and Duvall, Critical Astropolitics, 50.

49 Duvall and Havercroft, Taking Sovereignty out of this World, 755.

50 Havercroft and Duvall, Critical Astropolitics, 50.

51 Dolman, Astropolitik, 165.

52 Teresa Hitchens and Joan Johnson-Freese, “Toward a new national security space strategy: time for a strategic rebalancing” (Atlantic Council Strategy Paper 5, Atlantic Council, June 2016).

53 Deudney, Dark Skies, 250.

54 Ibid., 372.

55 Convention on Cluster Munitions, 30 May 2008. United Nations Treaty Series 2688, no. 47713 (2014): 39-184

56 Congressional Budget Office, “Approaches for Managing the Costs of U.S. Nuclear Forces, 2017 to 2046.” Congress of the United States. 31 October, 2017.

57 John Gower, “Improving Nuclear Strategic Stability Through a Responsibility-Based Approach A Platform for 21st Century Arms Control,” Briefer, no. 1 (January 7, 2019). Council on Strategic Risks.

58 Deudney, Dark Skies, 355.

59 Dolman, Astropolitik at 151.

60 Ibid.

61 Michael J. Neufeld, “’Space superiority’: Wernher von Braun’s campaign for a nuclear-armed space station, 1946-1956,” Space Policy 22 (2006): 52-62.

62 Wernher von Braun, “Crossing the Last Frontier” Collier’s Weekly, 22 March, 1952, 24-8; 72-3.

63 Ibid., 24.

64 Wernher von Braun, “Editorial: What are we Waiting for?” Collier’s Weekly, March 22, 1952, 23.

65 Lyndon B. Johnson, “Speech to a Meeting of the Democratic Conference 7 January, 1958,” in A time for action; a selection from the speeches and writings of Lyndon B. Johnson 1953-64 (New York: Atheneum, 1964): 43-4.

66 David E. Lupton, On Space Warfare: A Space Power Doctrine (Maxwell Air Force Base, AL: Air University Press, 1998), 33-4.

67 Terrence R. Fehner and F. G. Gosling, Atmospheric Nuclear Weapons Testing: 1951-1963. Battlefield of the Cold War Volume 1. United States Department of Energy (U.S. Government Printing Office, 2006), 216.

68 Quoted in Dwayne A. Day, “Nuking the site from orbit: when the Air Force wanted a base on the Moon,” The Space Review, November 4, 2019. (accessed 12 June, 2020)

69 “Project Horizon, Phase I Report, Volume I, 8 June, 1959.” United States Army. (Space Policy Institute Documentary History Collection, George Washington University).

70 Sean N. Kalic, United States presidents and the militarization of space, 1946–1967 (Texas A&M University Press, 2012), 49, 150-1; Nicholas Michael Sambaluk, “US policymakers confront aerospace doctrine, 1957-59,” Cold War History 14, no. 1 (2014): 91-107.

71 Nicholas Michael Sambaluk, The Other Space Race: Eisenhower and the Quest for Aerospace Security (Naval Institute Press, 2015), 140.

72 Section 102 (a). “National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958” House Resolution 12,575, Public Law 85-568, 72 Stat. 426. 29 July, 1958.

73 “Letter from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Nikolai Bulganin.” 12 January, 1958, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, The Department of State Bulletin, vol. 38, 970 (27 January, 1958): 122-127.

74 Address by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to the United Nations. 22 September, 1960.

75 Ibid.

76 Ibid.

77 Evgeny A. Korovin, “On the Neutralization and Demilitarization of Outer Space,” in International Affairs (Moscow, 1959), 82-3.

78 John McCone, “246. Notes for the Files, Washington, 10 March, 1960.” in Foreign Relations of the United States 1958-1960, Vol. 3 (Washington: Government Printing Office): 846-7.

79 “United Kingdom declaration on comprehensive disarmament, made by her Britannic Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the General Assembly at its 798th plenary meeting, on 17 September 1959.” United Nations General Assembly. A/C.1/820

80 Declaration of the Soviet Government on General and Complete Disarmament (English translation). 19 September, 1959. A/4219-EN. 7.

81 Ibid., 14.

82 Ibid, 16.

83 Ibid., 2.

84 “Recommendations for our National Space Program: Changes, Policies, Goals. Memo from NASA Administrator James E. Webb and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. 8 May, 1961,” in Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program Vol. 1, ed. John M. Logsdon (Washington, DC: NASA History Office): 439-452: 444.

85 Evgeny A. Korovin, “Space Exploration and International Relations: A Discussion,” International Affairs 6 (1961): 59.

86 The New York Times. “Khrushchev Says Monster Missile Backs Peace Aim.” 10 August, 1961.

87 “Tsar Bomba,” Atomic Heritage Foundation, August 8, 2013. https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/tsar-bomba (accessed 9 July, 2020)

88 Pravda, 10 September, 1961; Pravda, 17 March, 1962. See Arnold L. Horelick “Political Uses of Outer Space” in Joseph M. Goldsen (ed.) Outer Space in World Politics. (Praeger, 1963): 53

89 Robert S. Norris, Thomas B. Cochran “United States nuclear tests, July 1945 to 31 December 1992 (NWD 94-1)” Nuclear Weapons Databook Working Paper (Washington, DC: Natural Resources Defense Council, 1994): 33, 35.

90 Epaminondas George Stassinopoulos, “The STARFISH Exo-atmospheric, High-altitude Nuclear Weapons Test.” NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center (presented at the Hardened Electronics and Radiation Technology Conference, Chantilly, VA, April 22, 2015).

91 Mark Wolverton, Burning the Sky – Operation Argus and the Untold Story of the Cold War Nuclear Tests in Outer Space (The Overlook Press, 2018): 196.

92 Cassandra Steer, “Global Commons, Cosmic Commons. Implications of Military and Security Uses of Outer Space,” Georgetown Journal of International Affairs 18, no. 1 (2017): 9-16: 10.

93 “Regulation, Limitation and Balanced Reduction of All Armed Forces and All Armaments; Conclusion of an International Convention (Treaty) on The Reduction of Armaments and The Prohibition of Atomic, Hydrogen and other Weapons of Mass Destruction.” United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1148(XII), 14 November 1957. A/RES/1148(XII): 3-4.

94 “Western Working Paper Submitted to the Disarmament Subcommittee: Proposals for Partial Measures of Disarmament.” Fifth Report of the Sub-Committee of the Disarmament Commission. 29 August, 1957. DC/SC.1/66 Documents on Disarmament, 1945-1959. United States Department of State. 7008 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1960):868-874.

95 UN Press Release, May 6, 1959. PM/3728; Philip C. Jessup and Howard J. Taubenfeld. “The United Nations Ad Hoc Committee on the Peaceful uses of Outer Space.” The American Journal of International Law, 53, no. 4 (1959) 877-881: 877

96 Dolman, Astropolitik, 88.

97 Ibid., 5, 173-4.

98 Address by President Kennedy to the United Nations, 25 September, 1961.

99 Blueprint for the Peace Race: Outline of Basic Provisions of a Treaty on General and Complete Disarmament in a Peaceful World. United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1962), 1-4.

100 Ibid., 2, 13.

101 “Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water, 5 August 1963,” United Nations Treaty Series 480, no. 6964 (1965): 43.

102 General Assembly, 18th session: 1208th plenary meeting. New York, 19 September 1963. A/PV.1208:19.

103 Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. 27 January, 1967. United Nations Treaty Series 610, no. 8843 (1970) 205.

104 Papers of John F. Kennedy. Presidential Papers. President’s Office Files. Countries. USSR: Vienna meeting: Memos of conversation, June 1961: Drafts. 1-124:53.

105 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. United Nations Treaty Series 729, No. 10485 (1970) 169.

106 Thomas W. Wolfe, The SALT Experience. (Cambridge, MA: Ballinger Publishing, 1972), 1-2.

107 “Message from President Johnson to the Eighteen Nation Disarmament Committee, 21 January, 1964” in Documents on Disarmament 1964. United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1965): 8.

108 Raymond L. Garthoff, “Salt I: An Evaluation,” World Politics 31, no. 1 (1978): 1–25: 3; ‘Strategic stability’ relates to mutual deterrence: “ … strategic stability entails that strategic offensive and defensive arms should be configured so that neither side’s defenses can undermine the other’s retaliatory strike capability.” Vladimir Dvorkin “Preserving Strategic Stability Amid U.S.-Russian Confrontation.” Carnegie Foundation, Moscow. 8 February, 2019. https://carnegie.ru/2019/02/08/preserving-strategic-stability-amid-u.s.-russian-confrontation-pub-78319 (accessed August 10, 2020).

109 “Interim Agreement between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on Certain Measures with respect to the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. 26 May, 1972.” United Nations Treaty Series 944, no. 13445 (1982):4-6; Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missiles Systems. 26 May, 1972. Ibid., 14-7.

110 It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss the influence of other states. For example, the influence of the Global South in the legal sub-committee. Stephen Buono, “Merely a ‘Scrap of Paper’? The Outer Space Treaty in Historical Perspective,” Diplomacy & Statecraft 31, no. 2 (2020): 350-372: 358-60.

111 Address by President Kennedy to the United Nations. 20 September, 1963.

112 John M. Logsdon, “John F. Kennedy’s space legacy and its lessons for today,” Issues in Science and Technology 27, no. 3 (2011): 29.

113 Robert Mann, Daisy Petals and Mushroom Clouds: LBJ, Barry Goldwater, and the Ad That Changed American Politics (Louisiana State University Press, 2011).

114 Dolman, Astropolitik, 134.

115 Deudney, Dark Skies, 230-5.

116 Deudney views ‘restraints’ in terms of the reversal, regulation and relinquishment of violence-capabilities. Ibid., 139, 179.

117 Ibid., 372.

118 Report of the Commission to Assess United States National Security Space Management and Organization (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2001), xii.

119 Ibid., xxxiii.

120 Ibid., 38.

121 Helen Caldicott and Craig Eisendrath, War in Heaven: The Arms Race in Outer Space (London & NY: New Press, 2007), xvi; Joan Johnson-Freese, Space Warfare in the 21st Century (London & NY: Routledge, 2017), 8-16.

122 U.S. National Space Policy. United States Office of Science and Technology Policy. 31 August 2006.

123 Department of Defense Law of War Manual. General Counsel of the Department of Defense. 2015. (updated December 2016): 984.

124 c.f. “Draft Treaty on Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space and of the Threat or Use of Force against Outer Space Objects.” CD/1985; “No first placement of weapons in outer space.” Resolution adopted by the General Assembly. 69^th session. 2014. A/C.1/69/L.14

125 ^“Whither Arms Control in Outer Space? Space Threats, Space Hypocrisy, and the Hope of Space Norms. Remarks by Dr. Christopher Ashley Ford, Assistant Secretary Bureau of International Security and Non-proliferation” (Teleconference on ‘Threats, Challenges and Opportunities in Space.’) Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington DC, 6 April, 2020.

126 “Submission of the United States to the Conference on Disarmament: Implementing the Recommendations of the Report (A/68/189) of the Group of Governmental Experts on Transparency and Confidence-Building Measures in Outer Space Activities to Enhance Stability in Outer Space.” 16 September, 2016. CD/2078

127 Havercroft and Duvall Critical Astropolitics, 47.

128 U.S./U.S.S.R. Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. 26 May, 1972.

129 U.S. Department of State. “U.S. Withdrawal from the ABM Treaty: President Bush’s Remarks and U.S. Diplomatic Notes.” 13 December, 2001.

130 NBC News. “Putin denies ‘new Cold War’ but says new nukes are on ‘combat duty’.” 2 March, 2018.

131 President Vladimir Putin, Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly. 1 March, 2018.

132 “Russia’s Nuclear Weapons: Doctrine, Forces, and Modernization.” Congressional Research Service, R45861. 20 July, 2020.

133 “Nuclear Posture Review.” US Department of Defense. (2018): 9.

134 e.g. Timothy Wright “Russia tests Tsirkon anti-ship hypersonic cruise missile.” International Institute for Strategic Studies, 9 September 2019. China’s nuclear arsenal is expected to double in size over the next decade. “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China – 2020. Annual Report to Congress.” Office of the Secretary of Defense, United States. 21 August, 2020: 2, 5; “Current U.S. Missile Defense Programs at a Glance.” Arms Control Association. (Last Reviewed: August 2019) https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/usmissiledefense (accessed February 20, 2020).

135 On 2 August 2019 the U.S. withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty between the United States and Russia. On 21 May 2020 President Trump announced U.S. withdrawal from the ‘Open Skies’ Treaty. Daryl Kimball and Kingston Reif “The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty at a Glance.” Arms Control Association. August 2019; Treaty on Open Skies, 24 March, 1992. U.S. Department of State. https://2009-2017.state.gov/t/avc/trty/102337.htm (accessed June 15, 2020)

136 NBC News. “Donald Trump on Nukes: ‘Let It Be an Arms Race’” 22 September, 2016.

137 Reuters (Washington). “U.S. prepared to spend Russia, China ‘into oblivion’ to win nuclear arms race: U.S. envoy.” 21 May, 2020.

138 Deudney, Whole Earth Security, 47.

139 Kingston Reif, “U.S. Seeks New Space-Based Capabilities,” Arms Control Today. Arms Control Association, April, 2019

140 Public Law 115-91. H.R.2810. National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018. Section 1688.

141 Jessica West, “How to Keep Outer Space Weapons Free,” The Ploughshares Monitor 40, no. 4 (2019).

142 Space Policy Directive–4, Establishment of the United States Space Force. White House, Washington, DC, 19 February, 2019.

143 “Remarks by President Trump at a Meeting with the National Space Council and Signing of Space Policy Directive-3,” 18 June, 2018, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-meeting-national-space-council-signing-space-policy-directive-3/ (accessed November, 2018).

144 “Spacepower.” United States Space Force. June 2020: 61. https://www.spaceforce.mil/Portals/1/Space%20Capstone%20Publication_10%20Aug%202020.pdf (accessed 20 June, 2020)

145 Space Policy Directive-4. 19 February, 2019.

146 Todd Harrison, Kaitlyn Johnson, and Thomas G. Roberts, “Space Threat Assessment 2019,” Centre for Strategic and International Studies, April, 2019, https://www.csis.org/analysis/space-threat-assessment-2019 (accessed June 20, 2020).

147 Cameron Hunter and Bleddyn Bowen, “Donald Trump’s Space Force isn’t as new or as dangerous as it seems,” Journal of space safety engineering 5, no. 3-4 (2018): 131.

148 Todd Harrison, “Why We Need a Space Force,” Centre for Strategic and International Studies, October 3, 2018.

149   Federation of American Scientists, “Nuclear Test Ban, UN Control of Space Research, and UN Police Force – First Steps Toward Peace,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 14, no. 3 (1958): 125.

150 Address by President Eisenhower to the United Nations. 22 September, 1960; Report on the International Control of Atomic Energy. Prepared for the Secretary of State’s Committee on Atomic Energy. Department of State. Publication 2498 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1946).

151 Grenville Clark and Louis Sohn, World Peace through World Law, 2nd ed. (revised). (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962), 296.

152 Ibid., 300.

153 Ibid., 299.

154 Deudney, Dark Skies, 236; United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs “The Implications of Establishing an International Satellite Monitoring Agency” Disarmament Study Series, no. 9. (New York: United Nations, 1983).

155 c.f. Article V. U.S./U.S.S.R. Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. 26 May, 1972.

156 For a shortlist of possible functions see Cynthia A. S. McKinley, “The Guardians of Space,” Aerospace Power Journal 44 (2000): 37-46: 43.

157 Kelli Mars (ed.) “Gateway,” National Aeronautics and Space Administration. https://www.nasa.gov/gateway (modified 14 November, 2020; accessed 19 November, 2020)

158 C.f. “The Future of Space 2060 and Implications for U.S. Strategy: Report on the Space Futures Workshop.” Air Force Space Command. 5 September, 2019: 9.

159 BBC News, “Trump: ‘Space is the world’s newest war-fighting domain,’’ 21 December, 2019.

160 Bonnie L. Triezenberg, Deterring Space War: An Exploratory Analysis Incorporating Prospect Theory into a Game Theoretic Model of Space Warfare (Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation, 2017), 32; Pawel Bernat and Elżbieta Posłuszna, “The Threat of Space Terrorism in the Context of Irregular Warfare Strategies,” in Evaluation of Social Changes and Historical Events Based on Health, Economy and Communication in a Globalizing World, ed. Leyla Aydemir (Bursa, Turcja: Romans Dükkan, 2019), 25-37.