Space Weapons: Alternatives for Today

The massive budgets for U.S. military space and missile defense represent the beginning stages of a new arms race in space. But with the United States facing record budget deficits and record defense spending and with the international community expressing increasing concerns about the weaponization of space, the next administration faces some real questions about how hard it wants to push for new attack weapons in space.

No matter how the upcoming U.S. presidential election turns out, the next administration faces dilemmas with respect to the lack of a justifying threat, the technical difficulty and cost of placing weapons in space, how far its international partners want to go with missile defense and with weapons in space, and, finally, the type of international negotiations in which it is willing to engage. Each of these situations creates alternatives for today, alternatives which the next U.S. President will confront and the international community can and should engage.