Deterrence in Space

András Edl

doi:10.17047/Hadtud.2022.32.E.256

András Edl University of Public Service, EJRC Institute of Space Law and Policy; Doctoral School of Military Sciences https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4250-7112

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17047/Hadtud.2022.32.E.256

Keywords: space, deterrence, coercion, United States, China, Russia

Abstract

The recent increase in space activity brought space security considerations more to the forefront. Asthe chances of conflict in space are growing, scientific research aims at finding the possibly mosteffective tools to avoid or to win conflicts in this new domain.However, equipment deployed in space, in case it is destroyed, is hard to replace and due to thegenerated debris field, it can also endanger the capabilities of the attacker. Therefore, many expertsconsider deterrence as one of the most effective methods and try to adjust it for the space domain.However, there is a fundamental difference between the Western and the Russian or Chinese conceptsof this strategy. For the latter, coercion is an acceptable and logical part of deterrence.