Geostrategy in the space age: An astropolitical analysis

Journal of Strategic Studies

Volumn 22, Issue 2-3, 1999, Pages 83-106

  Dolman, Everett C ^a  

^a BERRY COLLEGE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 9744238998     PISSN: 01402390     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01402399908437755     Document Type: Article

References (38)

1. Jean Gottman (ed.) Centre and Periphery (Beverley Hills, CA: Sage 1980) p.1.
2. I am indebted to the many professionals at the Air Force Training Command's Joint Space Intelligence Operations Course (JSIOC) in Colorado Springs, who instructed me in orbital mechanics from 1986-90 when I took, and then had the opportunity to lecture in, their outstanding program.
3. The effects of atmospheric drag are significantly reduced as periods (altitudes) increase. Satellites in a circular orbit with a period of less than 93 minutes require large amounts of fuel to make orbital corrections due to atmospheric drag and other perturbations. Satellites in circular orbits with a period greater than 101 minutes are essentially unaffected by the atmosphere, and require relatively few attitude adjustments.
4. In theory, the Earth's gravitational pull extends about 900,000 km (one 166th the distance between the Earth and Sun, about twice the distance between the Earth and Moon). Beyond this distance Earth orbits are not possible, as a spacecraft will be drawn to another gravitational field.
5. H.J. MacKinder, The Geographical Pivot of History', Geographical Journal 23/4 (April 1904) pp.421-44, and idem. Democratic Ideals and Reality: A Study in the Politics of Reconstruction (NY: Henry Holt 1919).
6. H.J. MacKinder, The Geographical Pivot of History', Geographical Journal 23/4 (April 1904) pp.421-44, and idem. Democratic Ideals and Reality: A Study in the Politics of Reconstruction (NY: Henry Holt 1919).
7. 'Geographical Pivot' (note 5) p.430.
8. German economist Friedrich List (1789-1846) saw the coming power of the railroad as the cement of German unification, changing the strategic position of Germany from beleaguered battleground of Europe to a defensive bulwark operating with the advantages of interior lines (see Edward Meade Earle, 'Adam Smith, Alexander Hamilton, Friedrich List: The Economic Foundations of Military Power', in Peter Paret (ed.) The Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age (Princeton UP 1986) pp.217-61). Rail power has no clear parallel to space power with the exception that as a new transportation and information technology, space asset deployment surely has the potential to alter the political and military relationships of the traditional world and regional powers. In the same manner as emerging rail power, control of a global space network gives the previous advantages of interior lines - quick redeployment of military assets, efficient monitoring of all fronts, and not insignificantly, a nationalistic sense of unification - from what has traditionally been seen as a classic exterior line position.
9. 'Geographic Pivot' (note 5) p.434.
10. Democratic Ideals (note 5) p.50.
11. Thomas Damon, Introduction to Space: The Science of Spaceflight (Malabar, FL: Orbit 1989) pp.180-2.
12. Also called the Karman primary jurisdiction line.
13. Barry Smernoff, 'A Bold, Two-Track Strategy for Space', in Uri Ra'anan and Robert Pfaltzgraf (eds.) International Security Dimensions of Space (Medfors, MA: Archon 1984) pp.17-31.
14. Paul Stares, Space and National Security (Washington DC: Brookings 1987) pp.13-18. See also idem, The Militarization of Space: US Policy, 1954-984 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell 1985).
15. Paul Stares, Space and National Security (Washington DC: Brookings 1987) pp.13-18. See also idem, The Militarization of Space: US Policy, 1954-984 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell 1985).
16. See Holger Herwig, 'Geopolitik: Haushofer, Hitler, and Lebensraum', in this issue.
17. Especially the case for Global Positioning Satellites, or Navstar/GPS. See Michael Ripp, 'How Navstar Became Indispensable', Air Force Magazine (Nov. 1993) pp.46-9.
18. Alastair McLean and Fraser Lovie, Europe's Final Frontier: The Search for Security Through Space (Commack, NY: Nova 1997).
19. Thomas Karras, The New High Ground: Strategies and Weapons of Space Age Wars (NY: Simon & Schuster 1983).
20. Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence of Seapower Upon History: 1660-1783 (Boston: Little Brown 1890) p.25.
21. Marc Vaucher, 'Geographic Parameters for Military Doctrine in Space and the Defense of the Space-Based Enterprise', in Ra'anan and Pfaltzgraf, International Security Dimensions of Space (note 12) p.35. Vaucher's analysis comes very close to the type of astropolitical analysis I am attempting here, and his work deserves extraordinary praise.
22. Andrew Wilson (ed.) Interavia Spaceflight Directory (Geneva: Interavia SA 1989) p.600. Formerly Jane's Spaceflight Directory.
23. NASA Website, 'Two Kinds of Separation in Space: Metric Distance vs Total Velocity Change (Δv)', Space Settlements: A Design Study (HYPERLINK http://wwwsci.nas. nasa.gov/Services/Education/http://www-sci.nas.nasa.gov/Services/Education/ SpaceSettlement/75SummerStudy/Table of Contents1.html, accessed 23 Nov. 1998).
24. 'Fast Transfers' are of course possible, but require a greater expenditure of fuel and will only be done if fuel is abundant or time is critical.
25. John Keegan, The Price of Admiralty: The Evolution of Naval Warfare (NY: Viking 1989) p. 110.
26. These bottlenecks were easy to spot on a global map, and Mahan identified seven of them - the Straits of Dover, Gibraltar, and Malacca, the Cape of Good Hope, Malta, the Suez Canal, and the St Lawrence seaway.
27. See Wilson, Spaceflight Directory (note 20) for a representative catalog of spacecraft in orbit.
28. Influence of Seapower (note 18) p.83.
29. Giulio Douhet, The Command of the Air (1921) trans. by Dino Ferrari (NY: Coward, McCann 1942) pp.88-90.
30. Alfred Hurley, Billy Mitchell: Crusader for Air Power (U. of Indiana 1964) pp.81-3.
31. See Doug Reason, 'What are these Lagrange Points Anyway?', in Jerry Pournelle (ed.) Cities in Space: The Endless Frontier, Vol.III (NY: Ace 1991) pp.58-65. See also Vaucher.
32. The L-5 Society has since been absorbed into the National Space Society, where many of its former members are now primary officers.
33. Damon (note 10) p.40.
34. Spacecraft move from their original orbit, and in the process change their inclinations (this is how the Shuttle places payloads into geostationary orbit, releasing them with an attached upper stage or bus), but the transfer costs additional fuel, fuel that had to be placed on the launching rocket, ultimately limiting payload weight or spacecraft lifespan.
35. The Indium constellation originally was to have 77 satellites, and was named after the 77th element on the Periodic Table. When the constellation was scaled back to 66 satellites at a slightly higher altitude, a name change to Dysprosium (Periodic Table element number 66) was not made, for commercial reasons.
36. The most spectacular growth in space development to date has arguably been the direct result of Cold War competition, see Walter McDougall "... the Heavens and the Earth" (NY: Basic Books 1985), Cass Schictle, The National Space Program from the Fifties into the Eighties (Washington DC: National Defense UP 1983), and Matthew von Bencke, The Politics of Space: A History of US-Soviet/Russian Competition and Cooperation (Boulder, CO: Westview 1997).
37. The most spectacular growth in space development to date has arguably been the direct result of Cold War competition, see Walter McDougall "... the Heavens and the Earth" (NY: Basic Books 1985), Cass Schictle, The National Space Program from the Fifties into the Eighties (Washington DC: National Defense UP 1983), and Matthew von Bencke, The Politics of Space: A History of US-Soviet/Russian Competition and Cooperation (Boulder, CO: Westview 1997).
38. The most spectacular growth in space development to date has arguably been the direct result of Cold War competition, see Walter McDougall "... the Heavens and the Earth" (NY: Basic Books 1985), Cass Schictle, The National Space Program from the Fifties into the Eighties (Washington DC: National Defense UP 1983), and Matthew von Bencke, The Politics of Space: A History of US-Soviet/Russian Competition and Cooperation (Boulder, CO: Westview 1997).