Global Space Infrastructure and U.S. Grand Strategy

Professor Aaron Bateman from George Washington University will speak at the MIT Security Studies Program's Wednesday Seminar.

Drawing from archival work in a half dozen countries, Professor Bateman will discuss how the United States has leveraged allies since the Cold War to secure access to vital real estate abroad that enables it to project power through space. In analyses of space competition, scholars and policy experts have focused on activities in orbit and neglected the global terrestrial infrastructure necessary for military and civilian space operations. Access to overseas territories for basing space infrastructure has long been a source of comparative U.S. advantage and has important implications for U.S. - China competition today.