Space control and global hegemony
Abstract This article argues that in addition to ideology and an ensuing discourse, one—if not the only—effective grand strategic means for a great power to establish global hegemony is through space control. Today, the sole power with both the will and the capability to achieve the grand strategic end of hegemony is the United States, which spends nearly as much on space and armaments as all other countries combined. However, time is not on the side of the United States. Unless it proves able to secure control of space in the coming few years, the European Union and Russia will hardly consent to U.S. domination of space—and through it world politics. Thus, military space control is not the only way ahead.
Missile Defense Malfunction: Why the Proposed U.S. Missile Defenses in Europe Will Not Work*
T he U.S. proposal to establish missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic has exacerbated relations with Russia to a degree not seen since the height of the Cold War, and has done so despite the fact that the system has no demonstrated capability to defend the United States, let alone Europe, under realistic operational conditions. Further, it is being built on the shoulders of a missile defense system that has not come close to proving itself in testing and is still missing major components. Indeed, even the branch of the Pentagon charged with developing missile defense, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), claims only to be able to address an ‘‘unsophisticated threat.’’ As this paper will demonstrate, the proposed U.S. missile defense system in Europe creates much havoc and provides no security in return.
Kitchen Conversations: Democracy in Action at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum
Abstract This article describes the Lower East Side Tenement Museum9s ongoing public dialogue on immigration, the first in the United States. As she joins facilitators in reflecting on the importance of dialogue in a democracy, museum president Ruth J. Abram explains how and why the program was initiated, the obstacles that had to be overcome, and the public reaction to it. Kitchen Conversations represents the museum9s commitment to the proposition that historic sites must function as places of civic engagement, using the history they interpret as a starting place for dialogue on related contemporary issues.