Heavenly Ambitions: America's Quest to Dominate Space [Hardcover]

Following up on her previous book "Space as a Strategic Asset," Joan Johnson-Freese exposes the inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and deceptions behind the advocacy for deployment of space weapons and long-range missile defense systems. Even if the technology and the resources to deploy such systems were available today (which they are not, she argues), there are serious strategic and diplomatic pitfalls associated with this path.
As in many political controversies, the debate over military space capabilities too often pushes aside facts, unbiased analyses, and common-sense decision-making in favor of oversimplified emotional appeals, partisan posturing, and stakeholder lobbying. Among the many questionable arguments that the author tackles head-on is one that claims space is just another medium of inevitable human conflict that should be treated the same as land, sea, or air: the U.S. should seek superiority and dominance. The author makes a strong case that there are significant differences in the medium of space that make it unadvisable to adopt a military space doctrine that closely mimics the traditional warfighting doctrine of the other areas. She also notes that when the "space should be treated the same" advocates are confronted with the fact that the land, sea, and air domains all live with rules of behavior and limits on actions, they quickly switch gears and claim that space is different and should have no restrictions.
A short review can't do justice to all the issues that the author addresses, which she backs up with rigorous research. Her aim seems to be to expand the debate and debunk myths rather than to propose comprehensive solutions, although her final chapter makes the case for better international coalition-building, recognizing that the U.S. doesn't hold all the cards in space anymore, and is unlikely to do so again regardless of its level of space investment.
Some readers may question whether this discussion is necessary, since Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative is history and George W. Bush is no longer in office. The author convincingly shows that the issue hasn't gone away, and in fact has persisted across generations since the beginning of the space age regardless of who was in power.
The content of the book is thought-provoking and deserves to be considered alongside other positions on this matter. The layout of the book needs some improvement, however. The font size is small, and in the block quotes that the author uses frequently, the font is even smaller. It could use some pictures or graphics to break up the text, but there are none. One gets the impression that the publisher was trying to produce this volume in as few pages as possible. Definitely a candidate for a Kindle edition so the fonts can be adjusted.

"Heavenly Ambitions," by space policy scholar Joan Johnson-Freese, discusses "how our approach to space over the past two decades has squandered a once huge reservoir of goodwill toward American efforts in space" (p xii). Johnson-Freese's central argument revolves around the issue of "control" employed in discussing national security issues on Earth does not work in when considering the "high ground" of space. She comments that it, so ubiquitous in studies of national security issues, obscures more than it illuminates.

In many respects this book is a response to the belligerent language of the Bush administration, especially as manifested in the 2006 National Space Policy. That policy statement drew fire when first released because of its strident comments about U.S. perquisites: "the United States will: preserve its rights, capabilities, and freedom of action in space; dissuade or deter others from either impeding those rights or developing capabilities intended to do so; take those actions necessary to protect its space capabilities; respond to interference; and deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests" (p. 60).

Johnson-Freese's chapters walk through these issues associated with national security space in a chronological manner. She comments on the evolution of U.S. Space policy, the debate over space weapons, strategic communications, diplomacy and arms control, and the global aspects of spaceflight.

So what does all of this mean? That is, of course, the central question of all historical study. After a more than fifty-year gestation it is now apparent that space is central to the national security needs of the United States. That may well have been true in the 1950s, but it has become abundantly clear in the post-cold war era. The clarity of the cold war era, something commented on repeatedly since the demise of the Soviet Union, is now gone and is not likely to be replaced anytime in the foreseeable future. A new multinational great power situation exists with the United States clearly at the top of the pyramid but enjoying a lessoning superiority with every year. How do the nation's leaders stem that tide to ensure the welfare of the U.S. for the future? There is a great deal at stake in terms of the access to and control over Earth's orbit. Johnson-Freese does not overstate the importance this situation. The next few years may prove decisive in terms of establishing a regime of space control that will have profound implications for terrestrial geopolitics.