Midcoast Forum on Foreign Relations

Dr. Joan Johnson-Freese

Monday, December 10, 2012

Topic: Heavenly Ambitions: America's Quest to Dominate Space

Dr. Joan Johnson-Freese has been a member of the faculty of the Naval War College since 2002. Previously, she was on the faculty at the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu, HI; the Air War College in Montgomery, AL; and Director of the Center for Space Policy & Law at the University of Central Florida.

Within international and national security studies, Dr. Johnson-Freese focuses on globalization and technology programs and policies generally, and space programs and policies specifically, including issues relating to technology transfer, missile defense, and space security.  Dr. Johnson-Freese has testified before Congress on several occasions regarding Chinese space activities and space security issues. She is on the editorial board of China Security, a member of the International Academy of Astronautics, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the International Space University, served on the Space Studies Board of the National Academy of Sciences, and the Lyles Commission to examine the future of the U.S. civil space program, and an Adjunct Professor at the Watson Institute, Brown University.

In addition to teaching courses on Security Studies at the Naval War College, she also teaches courses on Globalization & Terrorism and Space & Security at Harvard. She has traveled extensively in support of the Naval War College PME engagement program, making presentations and conducting curriculum discussions in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Colombia, Mexico, Kenya, South Africa, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and the Dominican Republic.

Recent books include Heavenly Ambitions: America’s Quest to Dominate Space, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), and Space as a Strategic Asset, (Columbia University Press, 2007). Prior books include: The Chinese Space Program: A Mystery Within a Maze (Krieger Publishing, 1998); Space: The Dormant Frontier, Changing the Space Paradigm for the 21^st Century, (Praeger Publishers, 1997); The Prestige Trap: A Comparative Study of the US, European and Japanese Space Programs, with Roger Handberg, (Kendall-Hunt, 1994);Over the Pacific: Japanese Space Policy Into the 21^st Century, (Kendall-Hunt, 1993); andChanging Patterns of International Cooperation in Space, (Krieger Publishing, 1990). She has also published over 80 journal articles relating to international space cooperation and competition issues.