June 7, 2005 :: The Weekly Standard :: Analysis
Peter Brookes, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, argues persuasively in the New York Post for the deployment of strategic space-based military assets. He reiterates that space is critical to U.S. national security, but laments the fact that the Bush administration’s soon-to-be-issued National Space Policy—the first update since the Clinton administration’s in 1996—has created “hysteria” among arms control advocates, many of whom are already condemning Bush’s new policy with terms such as “arms race,” “strategic instability,” and “militarizing space.”
Brookes pays particular attention to the contention that space-based systems could provoke an arms race, concluding that, “It ain’t necessarily so.” He reminds us that for decades, arms controllers denounced ballistic missile defense, warning that it would destabilize relations with China and Russia and spark a devastating post-Cold War arms race. Yet no such scenario has materialized. According the Brookes, “The Bush administration’s initial deployment of missile defense hasn’t caused an arms race or made relations with Beijing and Moscow any tougher than they already were. It has, however, improved our national security by providing the first protection against ballistic missiles—ever.” (Article)
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