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The Military and Space A Half-Day Conference at the Cato Institute Both before and after taking office, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has argued that the U. S. military needs to expand its role in space. In addition to raising the possibility of space-based missile defense, Rumsfeld, through a commission he chaired before taking office, concluded that the "weaponization" of space was inevitable and advo-cated the development of anti-satellite weapons and a doctrine for space combat. But what is the military's proper role in space? Should it be confined to the present intelligence, communications, and navigation functions, or should offensive and defensive systems and measures be deployed? If weapons were deployed, would this action lead to an arms race in space? Or is that race inevitable anyway? And what is the condition of the Russian early warning systems used to detect an attack with nuclear weapons? Could the deterioration of those systems adversely affect U. S. security by accidentally causing a nuclear war? If so, what could be done to lessen the chances of such a catastrophic event? All of those issues will be discussed at the conference.
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