James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies
Combating the spread of weapons of mass destruction with training & analysis

Introduction

Space is an increasingly important international arena, due to growing civilian and military dependence on space-based assets. Commercial space technologies have now created global networks that are critical to civilian navigation, remote sensing, weather forecasting, communications, and global financial transactions. Space also plays a key role in verifying arms control and nonproliferation treaties, providing targeting information for precision-guided munitions, conducting reconnaissance, and maintaining contact with forward-based troops. Given this growing international reliance on space, threats to space security--ranging from military to environmental to criminal--require greater attention to ensure safe access to space. During the Cold War, mutual U.S.-Soviet military restraint, diligent monitoring, and a series of treaties kept the situation stable. But the emergence of additional states possessing the capability of launching payloads into orbit has raised new questions, especially in the United States, about the adequacy of past security arrangements. Some analysts suggest that new military means may be necessary for achieving future security. Other analysts argue that political mechanisms are far preferable and are more likely to avoid historical cycles of possible action-reaction arming in space. This purpose of this website is two-fold: first, to track national space capabilities among the major space-faring states; and, second, to catalogue proposals at the national and international levels (including from NGOs) for achieving and promoting space security. The website also provides background information about existing space treaties and offers links to articles, reports, databases, and websites dealing with space security topics. Its intended audience includes students, analysts, journalists, policymakers, and the general public.

About this site
These pages are supported by grants from the Ploughshares Fund and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The website is supervised by Dr. James Clay Moltz (cmoltz[at]miis.edu). Contributors to the site have included Caitlin Baczuk, Charlotte Savidge, Rebecca Schauer, Nathan Voegeli, Josh Levinger, and Adam Williams.{Updated 4/3/2007}