Spacepower Strategy for Medium Powers: Applying Observations from the Maritime Domain

Various spacepower theorists, such as John Klein, Everett Dolman, Namrata Goswami, Peter Garretson, and Brent Ziarnick, write about the similarities between the maritime domain and outer space. However, much of their literature focuses on great power competition between countries like the United States and Russia. What should medium powers—with limited autonomy—do to gain relevance and participate meaningfully in the space domain? Inspired by J. R. Hill’s Maritime Strategy for Medium Powers, this paper analyzes the historical behavior of medium powers in the maritime domain, distilling several applications to inform medium power strategies for the space domain. Space access and exploitation should not be a distant fantasy for medium powers; they largely have the agency to overcome inherent constraints and should exploit all available instruments of power to achieve their desired ends.