Space Warfare: Strategy, Principles and Policy

This book examines military space strategy within the context of the land and naval strategies of the past. This second edition has been updated and revised, with several new chapters included.

The book examines competition and conflict in the space domain, including the methods used and sound counterstrategies to thwart a competitor’s efforts. Contrary to many spacepower pundits, the book explains that neither is the space domain inherently offense-dominant nor is there a first-mover advantage when incorporating a sound space strategy. Offering new insights into the nature of strategic competition in space, this second edition leans heavily on the British maritime experience and the work of Julian Corbett to provide a strategic framework for understanding competition, crisis, and conflict in the space domain. It also includes important concepts from leading theorists and strategists, both past and present, to amplify concepts and provide additional insights into the functioning of space strategy. The book provides a foundational framework by underscoring that space strategy is shaped by the fundamental nature of all warfare, along with the universal principles of strategy and the essential unity of all strategic experience. Warfare is warfare, no matter the domain of operations, and consequently, policymakers and military leaders can look to historical experience and knowledge of past strategic frameworks to help gain insights into the functioning of space warfare.

This book will appeal to students of spacepower, defense and strategic studies, and International Relations.

John J. Klein is Senior Fellow and Space Strategist at Falcon Research, USA and serves as an adjunct professor at the George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute. His previous publications include Understanding Space Strategy: The Art of War in Space (2019).