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Asia's Space Race

National Motivations, Regional Rivalries, and International Risks
  • James Clay Moltz
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2011
View more publications by Columbia University Press
Contemporary Asia in the World
This book is in the series

About this book

James Clay Moltz conducts the first in-depth policy analysis of Asia's fourteen leading space programs, concentrating especially on developments in China, Japan, India, and South Korea. He investigates these nations' divergent space goals and their tendency to focus on national solutions and self-reliance rather than regionwide cooperation and multilateral initiatives. He concludes with recommendations for improved intra-Asian space cooperation to prevent civilian space competition from becoming a military race.
James Clay Moltz explores efforts by China, Japan, India, South Korea, and ten other countries to boost their civil, commercial, and, in some cases, military profiles in orbit. He investigates these nations’ divergent goals and their tendency to focus on national solutions rather than on regionwide cooperation and multilateral initiatives.

Author / Editor information

James Clay Moltz holds a joint faculty appointment in the Department of National Security Affairs and in the Space Systems Academic Group at the Naval Postgraduate School. He is the author of The Politics of Space Security: Strategic Restraint and the Pursuit of National Interests and has served as a consultant to the NASA Ames Research Center.

Reviews

This book is unique for telling the story of the race from a comparative perspective.

Roger D. Launius:
...important analysis, well designed for classroom use and also for general readers.

James Matray:
His thoughtful examination exposes how economic and political competition among Asian nations has released new 'forces that have made space a very different and more complicated environment than it was during the cold war'

Columba Peoples:
...a valuable resource both for readers new to the field of Asian space policy and to those seeking a comparative analysis of individual national programmes.

Joan Johnson-Freese:
Asia's Space Race gives readers a succinct overview of a substantial amount of consequential material, especially trends in space...Moltz's book is a must-read for those who need to quickly get smart on the subject of space.

Col Richard B. Van Hook, USAF:
This articulate, comprehensive book provides illuminating insight into a region on the space-power fast track.

Lieutenant Colonel Brian Hanley, U.S. Air Force (retired):
...the book should be on the 'must-read' list of senior and mid-level officer education programs...a highly useful primer on the nexus of space technology and geopolitics.

Andrew J. Nathan:
Moltz deftly melds technological expertise with history and political analysis.

Offering readers unfamiliar with international space politics an alarming picture of the hidden but turbulent developments in Asia, this book is recommended for serious readers in international relations and policymaking.Library Journal

Serious followers of space technology and politics will find his analysis invaluably informative.

Bates Gill, director, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), and coeditor of Governing the Bomb: Civilian Control and Democratic Accountability of Nuclear Weapons:
As humankind enters a new and more globalized spacefaring era, many hope outer space can become a commons for cooperation. Yet Asian space powers risk a more divisive and destabilizing prospect: an Asian space race. In this exceptional book, Clay Moltz provides the best read available to describe and explain the remarkably dynamic, increasingly crowded, and troublingly competitive field of Asian civil, commercial, and military space activity and presents a range of well-reasoned policy prescriptions for a stronger and more effective regime for space security among Asian powers and their neighbors, especially the United States.

Phillip C. Saunders, National Defense University, coauthor of The Paradox of Power: Sino-American Strategic Restraint in an Era of Vulnerability:
Asian states are latecomers to space, yet their collective choices will shape the space environment in the twenty-first century. Clay Moltz has written a theoretically informed, comparative book that expertly analyzes the strategic, economic, and domestic factors driving Asian states into space. He highlights the national and regional dynamics that are making space an increasingly 'congested, contested, and competitive environment,' but also identifies common interests and incentives that could support more cooperative outcomes. A must-read for space experts and Asia specialists alike.

Scott Pace, director, Space Policy Institute, George Washington University:
Clay Moltz's masterful survey of rapidly developing Asian space programs sheds new light on the complex economic, military, and political forces driving them. The significance of Asian space efforts extends beyond immediate technical and scientific achievements and foreshadows the future of international cooperation and competition across the Asia-Pacific region.

Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
December 13, 2011
eBook ISBN:
9780231527576
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
288
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