ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Battle-Space: The Military-Technical Revolution and the Making of a Planet since the 1970s

• In Event: Scales of the Earth: Space, Science and the Specters of Planetary History 02

English Abstract

During the 1970s, debates about a possible Military-Technical Revolution (MTR) gained momentum on both sides of the Atlantic. Postulating a causal relationship between techno-scientific innovation and strategic effectiveness, the basic assumption of the MTR doctrine was that advanced technology enabled a ‘System of Systems’ that allowed for complete control of the earth through observation systems in orbital space, that is satellites. Reflecting a planetary turn in the theory of warfare that has seldom been articulated within these debates, this presentation focuses on the often overlooked extraterrestrial dimensions of the MTR and asks how this doctrine influenced the production and use of orbital space. Although this doctrine was originally concerned with warfare on earth, it effectively created a demand for a further step in the planetization of the earth: the more strategic effectiveness became dependent on space-based technology, the more these observation systems became central to the logic of defense. The MTR, then, not only transformed earth from a battlefield into a battlespace but also had a crucial impact on the ways military theorists, scientists and politicians assessed the scales of the earth and its surrounding orbits. From a military perspective, conceptualizing planet Earth has always been a prerequisite for effectively exerting space power which in turn was always about dominating the planet, hence military debates offer an important path of how Earth became a planet by shedding light on the dynamics and inter-relations of technoscientific innovation on the one hand and geopolitics in orbital space on the other.

Author

• Tilmann Siebeneichner, Leibniz-Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung (ZZF) Potsdam