What Place for Space: Competing Schools of Operational Thought in Space

Competing Schools of Op Image
Published Date

Synopsis

Space is an area of utmost importance to everyone, yet it is a field dominated by a small group of experts, who themselves are divided on what is most important about space in achieving U.S. national security. Six schools of operational thought are presented here, which capture most of the ideas being advanced today in the debate about organizing national security space.

By considering these ideas as discrete schools, we identify the assumptions each makes about how wars of the future will transpire, what role space will play, and what technologies and organizational structure should thus be pursued