Space War Power

Taylor Dinerman has an article that’s recommended reading here.

An Excerpt:
As long as we live in a world without an all-out major war, the most dangerous form of space power is non-military. The mullahs of Iran and, before them, the Afghan Taliban banned satellite dishes, for good reason. Commercial Western television is a subversive force of unmatched power. While pro-jihadi television such as al-Jazeera and al-Manar continues to have an immediate impact, the forces of western commercial culture, as well as dissident broadcasts relayed via satellite to the Middle East, are at least as destabilizing. At some point people get tired of ideology and long to be normal. It will probably take decades for this to have a decisive effect, but as long as the West maintains a steady stream of entertainment products flowing into the minds of young potential jihadis the outcome is predictable.

This is why Iran’s 2003 Cuba-based jamming of broadcasts from Persian exiles based in Southern California is so significant. They went after the Telstar 12 satellite in geosynchronous orbit because it was feeding the people of Iran with alternative ideas that originated from people whose basic culture and religion were identical to their own. Satellite television allows people who speak the same language and share the same culture to stay in touch and to maintain their identity even when living thousands of kilometers apart. For good or ill this is an inescapable aspect of what may be termed “soft” space power.