US Military Space Policy Research After The Cold War

As the development of science and technology, space is no longer a completelystrange field for us. Our daily life and production has benefited much from theexploration and exploitation of space. But the countries of the world, especially thegreat powers, have paid much attention to the military value of space. In the cold warera, the United States and the Soviet Union launched an arms race in the outer space,which has led to the militarization of space. In the past twenty years after the cold war,there wasn’t any powerful rival like the Soviet Union for the U.S. But it continued topractice and implement its military space policy which increasingly tended to behardline. How should we analyze this phenomenon?This thesis analyzes the U.S. post-cold-war military space policy based on the U.S.official documents, and it points out that the policy tended to be hardline. The thesisexplains the cause of the hardline policy from the prospect theory. It concludes that anover-defensive psychology existed in America’s policy-making process, that Americawas very alert to others’ progress in space activities, and that America wantonlysuspected others’ intention of space exploration and exploitation. And the thesis infersthat the United States will pursue its established military space policy and strive todominate space.