Journal Article Features SAIC's Know-How in Space Arms Control

The article's publication comes at a time "when there's not a lot of literature on the topic," said Justin Anderson, an SAIC national security policy analyst. "The United States and other space-faring nations need to address a range of complex, pressing issues to ensure that outer space remains open and accessible to all nations."

Anderson and fellow SAIC employees Walt Conrad and Sarah Jacobs wrote the article. Titled "Arms Control in the Third Space Age," it outlines a framework for evaluating potential arms control agreements in space as the domain becomes, in the words of the Obama administration's January 2011 National Security Space Strategy, more "congested, contested, and competitive." The article appears in the fall 2012 issue of the peer-reviewed journal, which is published by the U.S. Air Force Academy's Eisenhower Center for Space and Defense Studies and provides an intellectual foundation for integrating U.S. space policy into national security policy.

"We are truly honored to have our work published in this forum, which allows our colleagues across the space policy community the opportunity to review and discuss our research findings," said Conrad, a senior space policy analyst and retired Air Force officer. "The article also provides a good foundation for follow-up analyses exploring other space arms control policy topics in more depth."

Study Reveals Growing Challenges

The article notes that it is vital that the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Air Force, as DoD's main implementing agent for space policy and operations, play a key role in addressing the potential impact of outer space treaties and agreements proposed by foreign states on U.S. equities and interests.

With space-based systems critical to a broad range of civil and national security activities, the study noted, it is crucial for the United States and its allies to lead efforts for developing — or opposing, if necessary — future efforts to draft international laws and regulations that will be pivotal in shaping this important operational domain.

"We've spelled out a framework of systems, capabilities, technologies, and infrastructure the United States must preserve in discussions of new international space treaties or agreements," said Conrad. "We have also created a unique, systematic approach to evaluating future space arms control agreements that may reflect broader future trends in terms of multilateral efforts aimed at regulating the military use of space."

Air Force Work Prompts Publication

Conrad's team provides research and analytic support to the Air Force on a range of arms control and international treaty issues as well as on matters concerning outer space policies, strategies, and operations.

In 2011, the team completed a research report that examined the current space arms control architecture, assessed proposed treaties and agreements under consideration in international diplomatic forums, and developed a framework for evaluating the potential impact of current and future outer space treaty and arms control proposals on military space plans, assets, and operations.

"Early last year, the client requested the team take some of the report's findings and write an article for possible publication in a peer-reviewed journal," Jacobs, a policy analyst, explained. "Space and Defense was interested in the article, which we finalized last summer."

She noted that the team has received positive feedback from the space policy and arms control communities. "Publication of our work gives credibility to the team's thorough research and analysis, as well as relevance to a topic that will be read and hopefully discussed by many within these communities," she said.

"For some of us, publication of the article represents the first opportunity to publish in an academic peer-reviewed journal, and it reflects well on SAIC to have our work in a well-respected publication," Conrad added, "but we are especially proud to have received praise from our Air Force client."