Space Force: The pros and cons of creating a new military branch
Past Event
This June, President Trump formally announced a plan to create a new branch of the U.S. military called the Space Force. Establishing security in space has been a U.S. interest for decades, and as such the idea of a military branch focused on space is not an entirely new one. There has historically been some support for similar ideas on Capitol Hill, but there has also been a lot of skepticism about any such plan both inside and outside of government.
On July 30, Foreign Policy at Brookings hosted an event exploring whether or not a Space Force is a good plan for the U.S. military. Participants included Former Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James; Steve Jacques, a retired Air Force officer and now managing partner at Velos LLC; Brookings Senior Fellow Frank Rose, former deputy assistant secretary of state for space and defense policy; Brian Weeden, director of program planning at Secure World Foundation. Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow at Brookings, moderated the discussion as well as share his thoughts on the issues.
Following their conversation, panelists took audience questions.
Agenda
Deborah Lee James
Former Secretary - U.S. Air Force
Steve Jacques
Managing Partner - Velos LLC
Michael E. O’Hanlon
Director of Research - Foreign Policy
Director - Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology
Co-Director - Africa Security Initiative
Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology
Philip H. Knight Chair in Defense and Strategy
Frank A. Rose
Former Brookings Expert
Brian Weeden
Director of Program Planning - Secure World Foundation
More Information
To subscribe or manage your subscriptions to our top event topic lists, please visit our event topics page.
