HARNESSING ALLIED SPACE CAPABILITIES - Hosted by the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and its Forward Defense program, this event featured the launch of a paper series, produced in partnership with Thales, which explores how the United States can better work with its allies and partners to achieve common security, commercial, and exploration objectives in outer space.

Maintaining the US and allied technological edge on Earth increasingly rests on these nations’ ability to operate effectively in the space domain. As the space landscape transforms—driven by commercial and dual-use developments, lower costs of entry, and thus a growth in spacefaring entities—the United States ought to consider how allied and partner governments and industries can augment its own space architecture. While initiatives like the Artemis program bring likeminded nations together for capability development, US and allied collaboration is limited due to strict regulations and overclassification, as well as a limited understanding of the niche areas where allies and partners can complement US activities, ranging from space launch and satellite imagery to weather monitoring and space debris mitigation. How can the United States bring its allies and partners into the fold to achieve key goals in the space domain?

On April 27, we were joined by Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy Dr. John Plumb, followed by a panel featuring the series authors—Forward Defense Nonresident Senior Fellow Nicholas Eftimiades, Johns Hopkins University Senior Lecturer Robert Murray, and GeoTech Center Nonresident Fellow Dr. Tiffany Vora—and moderated by Thales North America Chief Executive Officer Alan Pellegrini. The event explored the value of and way forward for US and allied integration in the space domain.

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: 04/27/23