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7. National Defense Space Policy: How Has Policy Evolved since Eisenhower?
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• 7 NATIONAL DEFENSE S P A C E POLICY How Has Policy Evolved since Eisenhower? The United States' defense space policy, handed down from president to president , from generation to generation, has exhibited remarkable stability over the past four decades, primarily with respect to national goals. Although there is much to be said for stability, balance, and continuity in a policy regime, one should not discount the degree to which familiarity and continuity breed a very unhelpful complacency. What we say by way of justifying U.S. defense space activities is so done by rote, reflex, and habit. Habits, by definition the products of repetition and settled tendencies, require minimal exercise of intelligence. In settled times, involuntary, routine activities are welcomed. Complacency, or excessive satisfaction with the way this country regards space and acts in space, is an outgrowth of the peaceful times in which we live. In more dynamic periods, however, the changes we encounter can make our habits look foolish and outmoded. Although there is much good to be said about the consistency of U.S. defense space policy since its inception, we ought not to make light of the possibility that perhaps the daily policy habits that guide the country's activities in space no longer are suitable for our age. Not all that meets the eye is real. A careful look at the country's general written defense space policy dispels any notion that the civilian and military leadership understands fully the prominence of space. Fragmentary spending on military space programs, a decentralized defense space organization, and the unbalanced rhetoric of public officials on military space matters indicate that this country is deeply divided on this subject, the tough words in the National Space Policy notwithstanding . This is not to imply an elaborate smoke-and-mirrors game by U.S. 208 Confronting Janus officials, only that it is time for Americans to pay attention to the entirety of the U.S. space policy regime. What Is Policy? Official policy is a collection of carefully chosen words, capabilities, and deeds, "deeds" being what is done with capabilities to support the words. One should even add to this list "inaction," for what we do not do also can speak volumes. Policy is an authoritative pronouncement on a specific course of action or direction . It directs those elected or appointed to policy-making positions who are responsible for executing the goals. The executive power of the country is vested in the office of the president, and it is the president, as the primary maker of policy, who is authorized to pursue the broad goals outlined in the Preamble of the Constitution. Since policy is made by those whom we elect to high offices, the leadership they appoint, and career bureaucrats, it reflects a degree of partisanship and vested interest related to the expressed vision and agenda of a particular presidential administration. Congress also makes policy through the enactment of laws. Yet the House of Representatives and Senate have neither the energy nor the required focus over the long term to implement policy objectives to influence continually general political attitudes toward military space activities. It is usually left to the president to see to "the steady administration of the laws."1 For these reasons, the presidency is central in our discussion of U.S. defense space policy. Where do we find expressions of policy? In the case 'of space policy, its first public pronouncement arrived in the form of a law that outlined in the impassive language of legislation the principles, national goals, and basic rules for governing space activities. With the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 and Eisenhower's issuance of the first "U.S. Policy on Outer Space" in 1960 as a backdrop , subsequent administrations since President Jimmy Carter have sought to codify their own objectives for acting in the space environment in the form of comprehensive presidential directives or decision memoranda developed in the National Security Council (NSC) and coordinated among numerous government agencies and departments. These written expressions of policy usually have been accompanied by press releases, or White House interpretations of declared policy. Typically, the White House also issues a classified version containing information deemed by the president's advisors to be sufficiently sensitive that its public release would be harmful to national security. The publicly issued document gives policy implementers and other interested parties outside government an understanding of the administration's formal direction and a sense of the president's overall...