The CDISS Space Security Programme offers a research agenda that is both unique and innovative. Where other space security programmes focus on the chimerical issue of whether space should be weaponized or not, the CDISS Space Security Programme focuses on the issues of most relevance to the policy community and industry today as well as tomorrow. The CDISS Space Security Programme does not dismiss the possibility of space weaponization as an issue, but does seek to place it within a plausible policy and political context that involves geostrategic change, technological developments, and domestic political and economic circumstances that are complex and are likely to result in surprising outcomes. Instead, the CDISS Space Security Programme research agenda focuses on those very trends that impact on space security policy and the military uses of space.

Commercial Space Security

The growing commercial exploitation of space produces new challenges for the space security agenda. Western armed forces are among the biggest customers of commercial space services such as communications and imagery, and this increasing reliance poses security risks for both customer, such as secure communications, and operator, such as placing their satellites at risk. Even commercial customers of commercial space services have to consider various security factors, such as broadcasters and those companies who rely on satellite communications. Over the past few years, several groups such as the Falun Gong religious sect, have hijacked the signal of commercial telecommunications satellites in order to broadcast their propaganda. In late 2005, the Libyan government jammed a commercial telecommunications satellite that was being used by a Libyan dissident organization, and in the process jammed users such as the British and US embassies in Tripoli, and broadcasters such as the BBC and the UK’s Channel Five. Satellite mission assurance is therefore a critical issue for all users, not just for military customers, and the CDISS Space Security Programme identifies threats, analyzes trends, and provides a forum for all users and operators to exchange ideas and discuss issues in-depth.

Emerging Space Powers

One of the key areas that the Space Security Programme examines is that of emerging space powers, a trend that has emerged over the past decade thanks to the dissemination of affordable space technologies, shifts in the geostrategic environment, and a desire by many states to emulate the perceived success of space systems in Western military operations. For example, in its search for energy supplies, China has entered into deals with a number of countries where Chinese space technologies, among other things, are offered in return for favourable oil and gas concessions. Such deals have provided the opportunity for countries such as Iran, Nigeria, and Venezuela to enter the space club – a club that such countries hitherto could only dream of joining. The CDISS Space Security Programme provides analysis of such developments, discerning strategic implications and possible policy options.

Strengthening the Outer Space Regime

The CDISS Space Security Programme looks at innovative ways in which the current outer space regime can be strengthened in order to better further the space security interests of all spacefaring states. At present, talks on space security under the auspices of the United Nation’s (UN) Conference on Disarmament (CD) in Geneva have ended in stalemate between China and Russia on one side and the United States on the other. Both China and Russia, together with a number of other countries, want the United States to sign up to a prescriptive arms control treaty that would ostensibly seek to ban all space weapons. The United States, however, does not feel that such a treaty is necessary, largely because at present no state has deployed any space weapons. Furthermore, defining what actually constitutes a space ‘weapon’ has proven contentious. Clearly, the current impasse is an obstacle to developing best practices for operating in space for all users during peacetime. The CDISS Space Security Programme looks at innovative ways in which such an impasse can be circumvented by examining new ways in which a legal framework for the outer space regime can be constructed that takes into account the modern and future realities of space for civil, commercial, and military users, and which can be accepted by all major space powers. One such approach is to examine the ‘rules of the road’ adopted by commercial space users so that rival operations do not physically interfere with each other. Such ‘rules of the road’ might be applicable to all users, and as a result a legal regime based on a common law approach might evolve that is practicable and enhances security.

Transatlantic Military Space Cooperation

US defence transformation has put pressure on European militaries to modernize their forces in order to best ensure a modicum of interoperability with their US ally. In a climate of declining European defence budgets much effort is being made in various European capitals to cooperate on security and defence space issues under the auspices of the European Union’s (EU) European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) and NATO. These varied institutional arrangements within Europe have made meaningful cooperation with the US in military space matters problematic, especially in matters that are beyond well-established bilateral arrangements. With space systems playing a ubiquitous role in humanitarian and stability operations, homeland security, and the more traditional military functions, Transatlantic cooperation is as much a necessity as it was during the Cold War. The CDISS Space Security Programme facilitates Transatlantic dialogue on these issues, as well as researching future trends of the relationship and its implications for military space cooperation.

Military Space Concepts

As the U.S. and allied militaries undergo deep-rooted technological transformation, so their reliance on space systems increase in order to carry out even the most basic military missions. Similarly, the diffusion of space technologies as a result of smaller and therefore cheaper subcomponents means that many other states that hitherto were unable to enter space are now able to do so, and thus impact upon the strategic calculations of others. The CDISS Space Security Programme analyses everything from space-enabled networked capabilities and precision strike, operationally responsive space, missile defence and the space weapons debate through a prism of technological literacy, strategic insight and an intimate knowledge of the political context that encompasses it all.

Space Power Theory

Unlike the military uses of the land, sea and air, the military uses of space are uncharted territory as far as strategic theory is concerned. The works of Sun Tzu, Clausewitz and Jomini are as pertinent today for land warfare as they were when first written. Similarly, every naval officer worth his salt has studied the naval and maritime theories of U.S. Navy Admiral A.T. Mahan and the British theorist, Sir Julian Corbett. More contentiously, air power theory such as the works of Giulio Douhet, Billy Mitchell and John Slessor, among others, is still the subject of debate today. Strategic theory is a guide for action that respects the physical realities of the operating environment in question whilst at the same time respecting the eternal and universal applicability of pure strategy. Relating the means (satellites and associated systems) to the ends (military and political objectives) in a complex and ever-changing environment is considered sufficiently important enough that the US Department of Defense has started a Spacepower Theory project that seeks to establish the beginnings of this strategic theory for space power. The CDISS Space Security Programme plays a leading role in helping to develop a strategic theory for space power.

• Attendance at CDiSS Special Interest Groups
• Significant discounts on attendance at CDiSS supported conferences
• Access to restricted areas of event websites – includes briefing documents, research and recordings and transcripts of selected Special Interest Groups as well as archives.
• Plus much more