View Featured Space Threat Assessment 2025 By Clayton Swope, Kari A. Bingen, Makena Young, Kendra LaFave PublishedApril 25, 2025 Welcome to the 2025 Space Threat Assessment by the Aerospace Security Project. This resource for policymakers and the public leverages open-source information to assess key developments in foreign counterspace weapons. Drawing on eight years of collected data and analyses, this report describes trends in the development, testing, and use of counterspace weapons and enables readers…
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…
The Future of Military Power Is Space Power By Clayton Swope PublishedApril 10, 2025 Released on April 4, 2025, the Space Force Doctrine Document 1 (SFDD-1) articulates the raison d’etre and establishes a common lexicon for U.S. military space power. It spells out the what, when, where, why, and how of the Space Force and its role in the joint force today. But there is also a need to look well beyond the present, using as much…
Next Steps for the U.S.-Japan Space Alliance By Sean Wilson, Clayton Swope PublishedApril 10, 2025 Japan’s heavy investment in space capabilities, coupled with the importance of space in supporting U.S. power projection in the region, has contributed to space becoming a strategic pillar of the U.S.-Japan alliance in recent years. The importance of the bilateral space partnership was highlighted recently in a joint statement from the February 2025 meeting of President Trump…
View Missile Technology Control Regime Reform: Key Changes and Next Steps By Sean Wilson, Clayton Swope PublishedMarch 14, 2025 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 make a contribution to delivery…
Why Should the United States Prioritize Mars? By Clayton Swope, 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…
View Protecting the Homeland: The Iron Dome for America By Ioannis Nikas, Grayson Phillips, Clayton Swope 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 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…
View Gold Rush: The 2024 Commercial Remote Sensing Global Rankings By Kari A. Bingen, David Gauthier, Madeleine Chang PublishedOctober 1, 2024 Four leading institutions—the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Taylor Geospatial Institute, Taylor Geospatial Engine, and the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation—collaborated to produce a “Top 3” ranking of the world’s best commercial space-based remote sensing systems. The results should spur policy conversations about the importance of U.S. leadership, the state of global competition (especially…
View 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…
