Sovereignty and Protective Zones in Space and the Appropriate Command and Control of Assets

<p>This paper examines two issues that are of vital importance to short and long term operations in space and the combat engagement of space borne assets. The first issue analyzed is the question of the establishment of sovereignty and protective zones for free passage in space. This paper will compare international law treaties and other historical analyses to current United States (US) war fighting doctrine on space and propose a United States Air Force (USAF) position on this issue. It will define and discuss the definition for two space protective zones. First and foremost the immediate safety zone by the space object and secondly the actual identification area around the object and its orbital track. The second issue will be intricately more complex on determining the engagement of space assets in both peacetime and wartime. The possible issue of criminal and civil liability will be discussed. The command and control of space assets will be briefly addressed with the second issue as it continues to be an ongoing controversy. Three differing views will be addressed. The concept that will be centered on will be that of integrating space into the air operations cells along with making some form of either a combined control cell at the Joint Forces Commander level or a stand-alone cell.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>