STIA 4404: Warfighting in the Space Domain

This course builds directly on the success of Space Security by moving students into the most contested and urgent debate in contemporary space policy: whether outer space has become or is becoming a warfighting domain and what that means.

For decades, space was militarized primarily through enabling functions such as, communications, navigation, intelligence, and early warning while overt weaponization remained constrained by norms, treaties, and strategic restraint. That equilibrium is now eroding and strategic drift is omni present. Intensifying great-power competition, the creation of dedicated space forces, rapid commercialization, and renewed ambitions to establish a sustained human presence on the Moon and Mars have fundamentally altered the strategic landscape. This course traces the historical evolution of military space activity, examines the drivers of contemporary militarization, and interrogates the accelerating weaponization of space systems, with particular attention to counterspace capabilities such as anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons. Students will critically assess whether prevailing strategic concepts deterrence, escalation control, and arms restraint remain viable in an increasingly congested, competitive, and contested orbital environment.