Year after year, in the framework of the United Nations Disarmament Conference, the United States has blocked the beginning of negotiations to prohibit the placement of any type of weapons, particularly nuclear weapons, in outer space, as well as the use of force or the threat to use force in or from outer space.
Washington seeks to establish a system of space defense that includes the placement of weapons, which would flagrantly violate the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, as well as the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963 and a series of agreements reached within the United Nations during the past two decades, accords that only contemplate the use of the outer space for peaceful ends, according to Latin American analysts consulted by the Latin American Circle for International Studies (LACIS),) a civil society organization dedicated to analysis, reflection, research, and the exchange of information, whose headquarters are located in Mexico City.
The specialists feel that if the U.S. government carries out its aims, it would radically alter the international strategic-military balance in its favor. This represents one of the most urgent priorities of the military-industrial complex, because the militarization of outer space would allow Washington to complete its program to install an antimissile defense system and ensure the technological leadership of the United States in this field.
The possibility of free access to outer space is a fundamental condition for scientific and technological progress, as well as for a wide array of activities that range from the development of science and technology to the use of increasing more efficient telecommunications satellites, whose use extends to culture, commerce, industry, information, etc.
If a world power militarily dominates outer space, according to the theses of the U.S. strategists, based on this advantageous position it could halt the economic, industrial, and technological development of rival countries or those that could potentially be rivals. That is, all those nations that, somehow, threaten or could compromise its hegemony.
Therefore, in the framework of the U.N. Disarmament Conference, the administration in Washington has consistently rejected proposals to approve an explicit and definitive ban on the installation of weapons in general and specifically the antimissile defense system in outer space.
If the international community signs agreements in this regard, the U.S. strategists affirm, this would limit or cancel the supposed right of the United States to use outer space for military purposes. This, in their opinion, would be “very dangerous” for U.S. national security policies.
While the United States accuses China of carrying out experiments in outer space that could potentially have military purposes, the Americans are rapidly developing their own weapons systems for use in outer space. The Pentagon considers the use of outer space to support military operations on Earth to be a priority.
A clear example of this doctrine, pointed to be the LACIS specialists, is the so-called rapid response in outer space plan that was elaborated by Pentagon strategists with the participation of prominent experts from the Institute for National Strategic Studies of the National Defense University, as well as from the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. War College.
According to this plan, U.S. military infrastructure in outer space should function with absolute efficiency and accuracy to facilitate the strategic domination of outer space and the monitoring of the space programs of other nations, as well as for the creation and installation of weapons systems adjusted to eliminate such programs should the need arise.
Outer space is still free of weapons. The international community should be fully aware of the true aims of the United States, which is attempting to take its hegemonic ambitions to the cosmos, and to understand the serious and imminent danger that this policy represents for humanity.
Given this panorama, throughout the entire world an increasing number of voices are being raised demanding immediate negotiations and the adoption of international agreements to keep outer space free of weapons.
Civil society organizations, intellectuals, academics, politicians, and writers and journalists have joined together to face a threat whose immediate danger is still not perceived in all its magnitude, the LACIS analysts concluded.