15 September 2024

Enabling Human Security from Space

Kyleanne M. Hunter, Joslyn Fleming, Jackie L. Burns, Grace Falgoust

The White House’s 2022 National Security Strategy (NSS) recognizes that human rights are a cornerstone of the nation’s security, and that security also depends on the nation’s ability to address shared human challenges, such as climate change, food insecurity, communicable diseases, terrorism, energy shortages, and inflation.1 Nested under the NSS, the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) 2022 National Defense Strategy of the United States (NDS) also emphasizes the importance of addressing cross-cutting security challenges, many of which address human rights concerns, while also ensuring secure and stable allies.2 To
address these human and national security challenges, the United States must be not only reactive to the changing national security environment but also proactive to ensure that human crises are mitigated and potentially prevented before they occur.

The Department of the Air Force (DAF) can be proactive and enhance human security by using the U.S. Space Force’s (USSF’s) capabilities and mission sets to add a human security perspective to promote U.S. security interests. The USSF, as the space-focused component of the U.S. military, is uniquely qualified to ensure that military decision makers have vital information to make human security–enabled decisions when addressing national security challenges. Although several U.S. government agencies and commercial partners collect and monitor indicators that are potentially related to human security, the USSF’s role as a military service makes it a natural nexus for embedding human security principles and perspectives in the security workforce. As a military service, the USSF understands the unique needs of military commanders.

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