James Clay Moltz, The Politics of Space Security: Strategic Restraint and the Pursuit of National Interests, 3rd ed. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2019

摘要

Celebrating the US Space Force’s 23 December 2019 founding provides an appropriate opportunity to review an excellent work summarizing past international space interactions. James Clay Moltz’s The Politics of Space Security explores a century’s worth of US, Chinese, Russian and other states’ decisions about space-based security. The chronological approach discusses all players individually and collectively during various historical landmarks including the Sputnik launch, Outer Space Treaty, and the International Space Station. Moltz favors the US perspective, while acknowledging other states along the way which drove and deterred space development. This history may be the best space summary currently in publication as individual events are linked to comprehensive national policy, with every item demonstrating complete narratives, comprehensive source data, and outstanding accuracy. Beginning by examining space’s unique physical characteristics, the historical element starts with WWII’s captured German scientists, races through Cold War nuclear tests, and finishes strongly with future speculations. This volume, having earned its third edition, should be a key reference for all scholars and strategists exhibiting any space interests.