Abstract
Space militarisation is an outgrowth or extension of the general technical revolution in armaments and should be analysed as one category of high technology weaponry. I argue below that modern warfare upon the earth’s surface in fact depends, in its most technologically robust form, upon military space systems; I will suggest that modern warfare cannot be fought without space systems. Three main sections follow: (1) earth-based high technology weaponry; (2) space militarisation; and (3) effects upon the Third World. Certainly these three subtopics overlap and interweave with each other. A specific historical example might well illustrate or involve two or more of the subtopics; so too might a particular technology, such as microelectronics.
I wish to thank Rear-Admiral Gene R. La Rocque, USN (Ret.), and the other staff members of the Center for Defense Information for their advice, forbearance, and generous sharing of the Center’s research facilities and files. I also thank William M. Arkin for his helpful advice on how to research military matters, delivered both personally and through his excellent book, Research Guide to Current Military and Strategic Affairs, published in 1981 by, and available from, the Institute for Policy Studies, 1901 Q Street, N.W., Washington, DC, 20009. Thanks also to Frances Weaver, Bernetha Gartung, and Mary Anne Brown for help at several junctures. The revision process benefited from critical discussion with Ulrich Albrect and his colleagues at the Berghof-Stifung fur Konflikforschung, Berlin. Finally, I thank Colin Creighton and Martin Shaw for their patient encouragement. Comments and dialogue are welcome and may be sent to Paul Hoag, 421 Princeton Avenue, Liberal, KS 67901, USA.
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Notes
Clarence A. Robinson, Jr., ‘Surveillance Integration Pivotal in Israeli Successes’, Aviation Week and Space Technology, 5 July 1982, pp. 16–17.
W. Seth Carus and Stephen P. Glick, ‘The Battle of Lebanon: the Aerial Assault’, The New Republic, 5 July 1982, pp. 15–17
James F. Digby, Precision-Guided Munitions: Capabilities and Consequences (Santa Monica, California: Rand, June 1974), p. 1.
Robert Kennedy in ‘Precision ATGMs and Nato Defense,’ Orbis: A Journal of World Affairs, 22 (Winter, 1979): 898.
Frederick J. Kroesen, ‘U.S. Army, Europe, Modernizes While Keeping the NATO Vigil’, Army 1981–82 Green Book, October 1981, p. 49.
John Tirman (ed.), The Fallacy of Star Wars (New York: Union of Concerned Scientists and Random House, 1983).
Michael T. Klare, American Arms Supermarket (Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1985), pp. 206–7.
See Cheryl Payer, The Debt Trap (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1975).
Christopher Dickey, ‘Morocco Loves Its Wall of Sand’, Washington Post National Weekly Edition, 2 September 1985, p. 18.
Bernard D. Nossiter, ‘Algerian-U.S. Convergence: Time to Settle the Sahara War’, The Nation, 25 January 1986, p. 79.
Bernard B. Fall, Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu (New York: J. B. Lippincott, 1967).
Michael Mok, Biafra Journal (New York: Time-Life, 1969), p. 38.
Cautionary tales can be found in David Halberstram, The Best and the Brightest (New York: Random House, 1972).
Neil Sheehan and E. W. Kenworthy (eds), The Pentagon Papers (New York: Quadrangle Press and the New York Times, 1971).
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© 1987 British Sociological Association
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Hoag, P.W. (1987). Hi-Tech Armaments, Space Militarisation and the Third World. In: Creighton, C., Shaw, M. (eds) The Sociology of War and Peace. Explorations in Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-18640-2_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-18640-2_5
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