View Featured Protecting the Homeland: The Iron Dome for America By Ioannis Nikas, Grayson Phillips PublishedMarch 5, 2025 On January 27, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order (EO) entitled “The Iron Dome for America.” Citing the potentially “catastrophic threat” from across the missile spectrum, its stated purpose is to “provide for the common defense of [American] citizens and the Nation.” In an evolving and diverse threat environment, this order calls for a…
View Featured From Earth to Uchū: The Evolution of Japan’s Space Security Policy and a Blueprint for Strengthening the U.S.-Japan Space Security Partnership By Kari A. Bingen, Makena Young PublishedAugust 23, 2024 As Japan reckons with an increasingly tense security dynamic driven by growing Chinese and North Korean military activity and defense budgets, space capabilities are becoming integral to Japan’s national security. The U.S.-Japan security alliance continues to be at the core of both countries’ approaches to security and stability in the Indo-Pacific, with both seeking to…
View Featured Space Threat Assessment 2024 By Clayton Swope, Kari A. Bingen, Makena Young, Madeleine Chang, Stephanie Songer, Jeremy Tammelleo PublishedApril 17, 2024 Welcome to the seventh edition of Space Threat Assessment by the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). For the last six years, CSIS has used open-source information to produce an annual assessment of threats to U.S. national security space systems posed by foreign government capabilities. Each report in this series catalogs yearly trends, uses, and advancements of…
View Featured Battle Networks: The Three Part Series By Todd Harrison PublishedMarch 4, 2022 Militaries use battle networks to detect what is happening on the battlefield, process that data into actionable information, decide on a course of action, communicate decisions among forces, act on those decisions, and assess the effectiveness of the actions taken. Battle networks are sometimes referred to as the “sensor-to-shooter kill chain” (or just the “kill…
View Featured Defense Against the Dark Arts in Space By Todd Harrison, Kaitlyn Johnson, Makena Young PublishedFebruary 26, 2021 This analysis from the CSIS Aerospace Security Project addresses different methods and technologies that can be used by the United States government, and others, to protect against or deter adversarial attacks via counterspace weapons.
Bringing the Private Sector to Space By Clayton Swope PublishedMarch 14, 2025 Executive Summary A steady cadence of speeches, strategies, reports, and recommendations from senior defense officials and experts extol the virtues of commercial space and urge increased use of commercial space services and products for national security. Yet the rhetoric does not match reality, in spite of meaningful progress made at the Pentagon, as commercial space is not being integrated and used at the scale needed…
Missile Technology Control Regime Reform: Key Changes and Next Steps By Sean Wilson PublishedMarch 14, 2025 Photo: Tech. Sgt. Joseph Pagan On January 7, 2025, the outgoing administration announced new U.S. policy guidance for implementing the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), which is a voluntary multilateral arrangement established in 1987 with the purpose of limiting “the risks of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (i.e. nuclear, chemical and biological weapons), by controlling transfers that could…
Why Should the United States Prioritize Mars? By Clayton Swope PublishedMarch 14, 2025 During his inaugural address on January 20, 2024, President Donald Trump indicated he will prioritize U.S. space endeavors focused on Mars. While NASA has a long history of Martian exploration, including operating ongoing missions to the Red Planet, the president’s remarks suggest Mars may play a more central role in NASA’s agenda during the coming years. Unless accompanied by…
Why Did South Korea Create a New Space Agency? By Jacob Bradley PublishedNovember 8, 2024 On May 27, 2024, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol announced the creation of the Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA), which replaced the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) as the lead government organization for Korea’s space program and research activities.[i] KASA was created to reorganize disparate Korean agencies to foster greater efficiency and space innovation. Under…
View Space In Focus By Kari A. Bingen, Audrey M. Schaffer PublishedOctober 31, 2024 We are at a consequential moment in space. Space capabilities underpin our daily lives, our national security, our economy, and our ability to explore deep into the cosmos. Yet challenges to the domain and the international order are acute, and U.S. leadership in space is under strain. Actions and decisions now will determine whether space…
