US needs to engage, as well as deter, China to maintain space leadership: CFR report

(Graphic: iStock, Getty)

WASHINGTON — In order to protect its leadership in space, the United States needs to out-compete China and deter its ability to successfully attack US space assets, but also needs to seek “targeted” engagement with Beijing to improve communications and find areas of mutual benefit such as space traffic management, finds a new report by the Council on Foreign Relations.

The report, “Securing Space: A Plan for U.S. Action,” was crafted by an expert task force co-chaired by retired Space Force Lt. Gen. Nina Armagno and former California Congresswoman Jane Harman.

Recognizing that space has become both a “strategic vulnerability” and a “strategic imperative” for the United States, the report lays out both hard and soft power actions that the authors maintain are necessary for the US government in order to keep its current leadership role in the face of increased competition.

“In the increasingly chaotic realm of space, the United States’ position is slipping. In 1957, the Soviet Union’s launch of the Sputnik satellite was a wakeup call, spurring the United States to assume a dominant role in space. Today, nearly seventy years later, the United States is in danger of losing that privileged position. In many ways, the country risks another Sputnik moment,” the report finds.

The US government thus “needs to act now to address threats to space assets; champion space traffic management to support the growing space economy; and incorporate commercial perspectives into civilian and national security space policy,” it sums up.

The CFR report makes seven recommendations for the new Trump administration as it crafts its approach to space across the civil, commercial and defense spheres:

• Make space a top national priority. The report urges President Donald Trump to call a cross-sector space summit to assess national priorities, including relooking the controversial question of declaring “some key space systems” as “critical infrastructure.”
• Revitalize American international leadership in space. This includes giving the National Security Council a strong hand in guiding policy, and at least considering the potential value of continuing the National Space Council. (A number of Trump advisers, reportedly including Vice President J.D. Vance and Elon Musk, have been questioning the viability of the council.)
• Fix the vulnerability problem and enhance deterrence. Measures should include “enhancing domain awareness, proliferating and widely distributing space assets to increase their resiliency, hardening space assets against various modes of attack, providing space assets with defensive capabilities, and developing replacement assets that can be deployed quickly when needed.”
• Sharpen policy on China and seek strategic engagement on hotline issues — such as communications, space traffic management and astronaut rescue.
• Build on existing international regimes to improve space traffic management. “This effort should involve developing ‘rules of the road’ to deconflict space activities, avoid collisions and other accidents, and mitigate risk from space debris. And it should involve U.S. allies, partners, and even adversaries,” the report elaborates.
• Incorporate the commercial sector and other relevant nonstate actors. One way to help accomplish this, the CFR authors suggest, would be to develop an advisory council that would meet regularly to provide the government with expertise on space traffic management issues.
• Treat space as global commons. The report cautions that the United States “may not always be the first to reach new destinations in space,” and thus argues that Washington should strongly support continued adherence to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty in ensuring that space cannot be claimed as territory by any country.