Trump’s Space Force: much ado about nothing?

Monsoon Pod

In this episode of the Monsoon Podcast, Luke Courtois speaks to four distinguished experts about the newly announced branch of the US military: Trump’s Space Force.

The space domain is becoming increasingly contested, with a host of state and non-state actors entering the fray. It is in this context that US President Donald Trump announced the Department of Defence would set up a new branch of the military called the ‘Space Force’.

What is behind this initiative? Despite becoming an instant meme on social media, should we be taking the idea more seriously? Luke Courtois invites four experts into the space age to explore this hotly debated but nonetheless critical development.

Namrata Goswami is a senior analyst and associate author based in Montgomery, in the US state of Alabama. She regularly consults for the NATO Partnership for Peace Consortium ‘Emerging Security Challenges Working Group’ and is a Senior Analyst and Subject Matter Expert with Wikistrat and Auburn University Futures Lab.

Malcolm Davis is a senior analyst in Defence Strategy and Capability at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). His work focuses on the emergence of new technologies, strategy and capability development. Malcolm has also written extensively on Australian space policy and space capabilities.

Richard Menhinick served in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) for forty years. In the RAN he was deployed to the Middle East, including operations at sea during the 1990-91 Gulf War. He spent the last three years of his military career within the US Central Command (CENTCOM) in Tampa, Florida. He retired as a naval commodore, and is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University.

Benjamin Zala is currently a Stanton Nuclear Security Junior Faculty Fellow at Harvard University. His research focuses on nuclear politics and the impact advanced conventional weapons may have on states’ nuclear doctrines. He is also a Research Fellow in the Department of International Relations, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University.

Feature image source: SpaceX-Imagery on Pixabay

Music: Inspired by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License