I am pleased to share with you this new report Preserving Freedom of Action in Space: Realizing the Potential and Limits of U.S. Spacepower. Michael Krepon, Theresa Hitchens and Michael Katz-Hyman have written a thoughtful and useful exploration of space power – how we need to think about it, and what we need to do to manage and maintain the use of space for its diverse uses in the 21st century world. The authors underscore the shared vulnerability of the world’s societies, should conflict in space disable or destroy the satellites that play such a vital role in the global economy and in support of humanitarian operations. They advocate a new code of conduct for space that would provide added assurance of space security to global stakeholders that benefit from the services satellites provide.
This work is the collaboration of the Stimson Center’s founding president, Michael Krepon, who currently leads the Center’s work on space and various proliferation issues, as well as South Asia, his able Research Associate Michael Katz-Hyman, and Theresa Hitchens, the Director of the Center for Defense Information. We have enjoyed a productive collaboration with Ms. Hitchens and CDI, and are pleased that this creative partnership has generated such a constructive and useful set of ideas about space power. I also want to thank National Defense University Press, which has given us permission to publish this essay in advance of its inclusion in an edited book on spacepower theory.