Space Strategy: Defensive Shields or Death from Above

Abstract

For the last year I have heard time and time again that "the cold war is over". Articles were published by the NDU Press which spoke of "US Strategy After The Cold War", and the Washington Post headlines screamed (before 2 August) of the "Peace Dividend" as a result of the end of the East-West confrontation. Experts in National Security spoke often of the end of the cold war and what the new "multi-polar" world would look like, and Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize. This simple soldier DOES NOT, however, believe that the cold war is over! The peace dividend is a delusion which may prove disastrous for our country in the long run. I believe, as did Winston Churchill, that the Soviet Union is a "riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma". While I will agree that the current situation is irreversible to the extent that it will never go back to the way it was before glasnost and perestroika, I can never believe that the Soviet government will become a Jeffersonian Democracy without a violent revolution. And what is most frightening is that we have no experience in dealing with a nuclear super-power embroiled in violent civil war. One misstep in the future may prove catastrophic.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 11, 1991
Accession Number
ADA437642

Entities

People

  • Daniel E. Kersey

Organizations

  • National War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Arms Control
  • Artificial Satellites
  • Chemical Weapons
  • Civil War
  • Cold War
  • Combat Readiness
  • Control Systems
  • Governments
  • National Security
  • Security
  • Space Based
  • Space Stations
  • Space Systems
  • United States
  • Ussr
  • War Colleges
  • Weapons Of Mass Destruction

Readers

  • East Asian Political and Security Studies within the Soviet Union
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.

Technology Areas

  • Space