Space weapons and the risk of nuclear exchange

  • Mon, January 11, 2016 • 1:00 pm ET
  • Atlantic Council
  • 1030 15th Street NW, 12th Floor (West Tower)
  • Washington, DC 20005

Keynote Address by:Ms. Mallory StewartDeputy Assistant Secretary for Emerging Security Challenges and Defense Policy Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and ComplianceUS Department of State Introduction by:Dr. Bharath GopalaswamyDirector, South Asia CenterAtlantic Council A Conversation with:Dr. Nancy GallagherSenior Research Scholar; Interim Director, CISSMSchool of Public PolicyUniversity of Maryland Dr. Joan FreeseProfessor of National Security Affairs US Naval War […]

Keynote Address by:
Ms. Mallory Stewart
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Emerging Security Challenges and Defense Policy Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance
US Department of State

Introduction by:
Dr. Bharath Gopalaswamy
Director, South Asia Center
Atlantic Council

A Conversation with:
Dr. Nancy Gallagher
Senior Research Scholar; Interim Director, CISSM
School of Public Policy
University of Maryland

Dr. Joan Freese
Professor of National Security Affairs 
US Naval War College 

 Dr. Gaurav Kampani
Nonresident Senior Fellow, South Asia Center
Atlantic Council

Moderated by:
 Mr. Lucien Crowder
Senior Editor, Development and Disarmament Roundtable
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 

January 11 marks the ninth anniversary of China’s first anti-satellite (ASAT) test, which made China the third country—after the United States and the former Soviet Union—to test a destructive ASAT capability. The 2007 test galvanized a debate in the United States about America’s increasing vulnerability to counterspace technologies. Many scholars believe that over the last few years, China has invested in counterspace capabilities that challenge the US “command of the commons.” China’s 2007 test also sparked a debate on an arms race in space that could someday trigger an inadvertent nuclear exchange between the United States and China, or between India and China.

On January 11, 2016—building on a 2015 feature published by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in its Development and Disarmament Roundtable series—the South Asia Center along with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists will convene a panel of experts to discuss the danger that anti-satellite weapons pose to global security. Panelists will include Dr. Nancy Gallagher, Senior Research Scholar at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy; Dr. Joan Freese, Professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval War College; Dr. Gaurav Kampani, Nonresident Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center. The panel will be moderated by Mr. Lucien Crowder, Senior Editor at the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. The conversation will be initiated with a special keynote address by Ms. Mallory Stewart, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Emerging Security Challenges and Defense Policy at the US Department of State.