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Eisenhower Center for Space and Defense Studies

President Eisenhower negotiating a deal to create the U.S. Air Force Academy.

The Eisenhower Center provides cadets and faculty with unique opportunities to participate in research and policy discussions on the future of American security through first-hand contact with senior leaders and experts in the military, civilian government and private sector from the United States and major space-faring nations. Building on this foundation, the Eisenhower Center examines challenges to America’s national security across other frontiers of technology development to include cyber security and developments in hypersonic delivery vehicles.

Through its journal, “Space and Defense,” the Eisenhower Center promotes an ongoing discussion of space and security policy issues from a broad range of professional and intellectual perspectives among academic experts and defense policy makers.

MISSION

The Eisenhower Center at the U.S. Air Force Academy conducts academic research to equip present and future leaders with the intellectual tools necessary to understand and master challenges of the space domain.

VISION

The Eisenhower Center’s goal is to become the premiere space policy and strategy research center at the U.S. Air Force Academy solving defense and security challenges.

CORE COMPETENCIES
  • National security policy research, with an emphasis on deterrence theory, particularly in the space domain
  • Supports research and scholarship related to challenges to U.S. security
  • Educational Collaboration with the White House, Dept. of Defense, U.S. Space Command, U.S. Space Force, U.S. Strategic Command, U.S. Northern Command, Lawrence Livermore, and Sandia National Laboratory

HISTORY

The U.S. Air Force Academy’s Eisenhower Center for Space and Defense Studies is named in honor of Dwight Eisenhower, the first American president to establish a national policy shaping U.S. engagement in space for both military and peaceful purposes. The Center was born on April 28th, 2005, to research and solve policy problems facing the relatively new domain of outer space. In February 2008, the Center received the honor of the Eisenhower name from Susan Eisenhower, a renowned policy expert and public leadership professor at Gettysburg College, to honor her grandfather’s legacy.

MAJOR PROJECTS

The Ike Center supports studies of high academic quality, framing the right questions for policy relevant to Air and Space Staffs within the U.S. Department of Defense. Through these endeavors and partnerships, the Ike Center cultivates cadet and faculty innovations for resolving the space domain’s national security concerns. The resulting works may be published in the Ike’s Center’s Space and Defense journal in coordination with University of Nebraska Omaha.

The Ike Center is currently home to two Institute of Future Conflict fellows working on the national security implications of commercialization and proliferation of government red lines in the space domain.

By continuously improving the National Space Policy course and Space Warfighting curriculum at the Academy, the Ike Center enriches cadet education and encourages policy-relevant research beyond the classroom.

Finally, the Ike Center engages with several partners, pursuing our mutual interest in cutting-edge space research and education.

 

SPACE & DEFENSE JOURNAL
RESOURCES

Academy Assembly

Institute for Future Conflict

Space Warfighting Minor

Institute for National Strategic Studies

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CONTACT US

Prof. Madison Walker
(719) 333-6568
madison.walker@afacademy.af.edu

Dr. Damon Coletta
(719) 333-2483
damon.coletta@afacademy.af.edu