Joan Johnson-Freese

US-China Commission Study Urges Tougher Space Cooperation Restrictions

"Ham-fisted US policy has proven counterproductive in the past, and will likely continue to do so in the future," said Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor at the Naval War College.

STRATCOM Raises Spectre Of Offensive War In Space

SPACE SYMPOSIUM: Offensive war in space is one of the truly hot button defense policy issues. Advocates say it is inevitable. Opponents say it violates the ideal of a cosmos marked for exploration and peaceful coexistence. Some say war in space would violate the Outer Space Treaty, which bars nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass […]

Stopping The Slide Towards A War In Space: The Sky’s Not Falling, Part 2

Yesterday, Joan Johnson-Freese argued that complicit and compliant media have helped the Pentagon overhype the threat of war in space — to the point that exaggerated US efforts to prepare for conflict might help start one. In today’s article, she outlines how US policy got to this point and how to correct it. — the […]

Stop The Fearmongering Over War In Space: The Sky’s Not Falling, Part 1

    Star Wars it ain’t, but the Pentagon is increasingly anxious over threats to its satellites, as we’ve reported frequently in recent years. But in this op-ed, scholars Joan Johnson-Freese and Theresa Hitchens argue that war in space is dangerously overhyped. — the editors In the last two years, we’ve seen rising hysteria over […]

How Next President Can Build New National Security Space Strategy

The next administration must do a “strategic rebalancing” of means to achieve what have been consistent national space security ends (goals): stability, sustainability and freedom of access. But a significant challenge to both reaffirming ends, and determining and implementing means, is structure, as we point out in a recent Strategy Paper for the Atlantic Council. While space is […]

DHS: The Department of Everything?

A colleague and I wrote a 10-year retrospective assessment of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2011, calling the organization a “colossal, inefficient boondoogle.” Amazingly, that didn’t land us on the no-fly list, probably because — even then — we weren’t the first, last or only critics of DHS. The actions and events that provided fodder for […]

Domains, Budgets and Bureaucracies: Nukes, Space & Now — Cyber

Joan Johnson Freese, a member of our Board of Contributors and professor at the Naval War College, is an expert on space, Strategic Command and several other topics dealt with below. She doesn’t think the creation of Cyber Command is a great idea. Read on to find why. The Editor. Analysis of the Peloponnesian War […]

Taking Out The Space Trash; A Model For Space Cooperation

Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor of national security at the Naval War College and a member of our Board of Contributors, is one of the world’s experts on international space cooperation.  Decoding this stuff can get very complicated since many of those involved in international space issues toss around terms like COPUOS, IADC, apogee, LEO, GEO […]