India’s Military Space Efforts and Regional Security Considerations

The Secure World Foundation (SWF) hosted a special panel discussion on Tuesday, March 8, 2011 from 3:30 -5:00 pm: "India's Military Space Efforts and Regional Security Considerations" at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1779 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC.

This panel examined the possible reasons for this change, reviewed how such a development could influence overall Asian security, and discussed how the United States and other space-faring nations could work with India in the future.

Victoria Samson, Washington Office Director of the Secure World Foundation, lead the panel discussion. She highlighted outcomes from a SWF co-sponsored conference held earlier this year in New Delhi: Space, Science and Security - The Role of Regional Expert Discussion.

Joining Victoria were panelists:

• Dr. Bharath Gopalaswamy of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute: He will detail a recently completed study that examined the debris consequences of an India-China space conflict.
• Dr. Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan of the Observer Research Foundation: She will speak on India's motivations for its anti-satellite weapon interests.
  
  Chairing this discussion was Peter A. Garretson, Lt Col, USAF, a former CFR International Affairs Fellow who studied Indo-U.S. Space Cooperation at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) in New Delhi, India.

Panel presentations were followed by a cocktail reception for event attendees.

NOTE: For background information on the January New Delhi meeting, "Space, Science, and Security: The Role of Regional Expert Discussion"- go here: