This offer of leading-edge thinking reframes the debate on national security at the dawn of the Third Space AgeDuring the First Space Age, President Eisenhower rallied democracies to defend freedom while preserving peace at a time when the hydrogen bomb and intercontinental ballistic missiles threatened humanity. Nearly seventy-five years later, the world stands on the cusp of a third era of space exploration, where space is simultaneously a domain for warfighting,...

Analysis of the FY 2022 Defense Budget from the CSIS Defense Budget Analysis program provides an in-depth assessment of the Biden administration’s request for national defense funding in FY 2022. It outlines priorities for the ongoing and completed strategic reviews—including the National Defense Strategy, Nuclear Posture Review, Missile Defense Review, and Global Posture Review—and their potential budgetary effects. The report concludes by assessing current congressional action on defense...

The proliferation of counterspace weapons across the globe often calls into question what can be done to best protect satellites from attack. This analysis from the CSIS Aerospace Security Project addresses different methods and technologies that can be used by the United States government, and others, to deter adversaries from attack. A wide range of active and passive defenses are available to protect space systems and the ground infrastructure they depend upon from different types of th...

Analysis of the FY 2021 Defense Budget from the CSIS Defense Budget Analysis program provides an in-depth assessment of the Trump administration’s request for national defense funding in FY 2021. The analysis addresses overall trends in the defense budget, changes in the FY 2021 request, and issues for Congress and the next administration to consider. It also covers the budgets of the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Space Force.

This report details the plans for major U.S. Defense Department acquisition programs over the next 15 years and explores the complicating factors that may make the situation more problematic for policymakers. It analyzes a range of options to mitigate the bow wave, including increasing the budget, cutting additional force structure, and making trades among major acquisition programs. The report finds that while none of the choices available are easy, it provides an opportunity for the new ...

The Obama administration’s FY 2017 budget—the eighth and final budget submitted by the administration—requests a total of $678.3 billion in funding for national defense. This CSIS Defense Outlook report analyzes the FY 2017 defense budget request looking at trends in the budget, differences from previous requests, and key issues for policymakers as they consider the budget and begin looking to the next administration.

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first human-made object to orbit the Earth. Six decades later, space-faring nations face a much different space environment, one that’s more diverse, disruptive, disordered, and dangerous. Today’s space domain presents a number of asymmetries that differ from other domains, creating a deterrence environment with unique policy implications. Escalation and Deterrence in the Second Space Age, a report from the CSIS Aerospace Securit...

Since the advent of the space age, a primary constraint on military, commercial, and civil space missions has been the cost of launch. Launching objects into space requires substantial investments in launch systems and infrastructure, which has restricted the market to only a handful of national governments and several large private companies. This study explores the possibility of a space industry significantly less constrained by the cost of access to space.

This is the inaugural report in the CSIS Defense Outlook Series, an annual review of what happened in the U.S. Department of Defense in the past year and what CSIS experts are looking for in the next. It is meant to serve as a roadmap to track where the course of policy and actions relating to strategy, budget, forces, and acquisition has run and what curves lie ahead.

"Analysis of the FY 2019 Defense Budget" from the CSIS Defense Budget Analysis program provides an in-depth assessment of the Trump administration’s request for national defense funding in FY 2019. In addition to analyzing the request for the upcoming fiscal year and the Department of Defense’s projections for the future, the report assesses long-term trends in defense funding levels by spending title and Service as well as changes in the military’s force structure over time.