In the News

Space Force: Lost in Space?

Author Lawrence J. Korb examines the merits of a proposal by the Trump administration for a new $8 billion so-called Space Force branch of the U.S. military.

President Trump’s directive to the Defense Department to do more to deal with military threats in space should not come as a surprise. For those of us who missed it among the usual rush of news emanating from the White House, this directive—whose plans were unveiled by Vice President Mike Pence on August 9 during a speech at the Pentagon—concerns the creation of a $8 billion proposed “Space Force” which would be a entirely new branch of the military. It is not clear what, exactly, the new force would do, nor even where he would get the authority to establish it; as Jonathan Turley, a professor at Georgetown University’s law school, told Defense News: “Congress alone has the power to establish a new branch of the military and to establish the positions of senior executive officials to lead such a department.”

The above excerpt was originally published in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Click here to view the full article.

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Authors

Lawrence J. Korb

Former Senior Fellow