When is a Space Weapon Not a Space Weapon?

摘要

Ask anyone with experience in the arms control arena, and he or she will tell you that a first-order hurdle for any successful negotiation is agreeing on definitions. Indeed, over the past several decades, efforts to craft restrictions on anti-satellite (ASAT) and other on-orbit weapons have foundered on just that rocky shoal: what is an ASAT or a space weapon? For example, during the 1978-79 U.S.-Soviet negotiations on a space arms control regime, Moscow was adamant that NASA's then-developmental space shuttle should be defined as an ASAT weapon. Despite the fact that neither side was yet heavily invested in building space weapons ― usually an auspicious situation for reaching arms control agreements ― the talks went nowhere.