World View Spotlight: The Militarization of Space

Student Voices: A new discussion series by students, for students

Friday, February 19, 2021
3:00 PM (Pacific Time)

ABOUT STUDENT VOICES

Student Voices is a new by-students/for-students discussion series aimed at providing smaller spaces for students to engage with each other and with experts on various issues within international relations. Each event is organized by the Burkle Center interns in partnership with an international relations organization on campus.

ABOUT THIS EVENT

World View is a new mini docuseries from The Generation, UCLA’s student foreign affairs magazine. The project pairs extensive archival research with first-hand expertise from government agencies, advocacy groups, and field researchers to cover IR issues shaping our world. The project is student-directed, produced, edited, and scored!

Join us for a discussion of the militarization of space, the subject of the following World View episodes and bring your questions to our live Q&A with Victoria Samson, one of the episode's featured policy experts.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Victoria Samson is the Washington Office Director for Secure World Foundation and has twenty years of experience in military space and security issues.

Before joining SWF, Ms. Samson served as a Senior Analyst for the Center for Defense Information (CDI), where she leveraged her expertise in missile defense, nuclear reductions, and space security issues to conduct in-depth analysis and media commentary. Prior to her time at CDI, Ms. Samson was the Senior Policy Associate at the Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers, a consortium of arms control groups in the Washington, D.C. area, where she worked with Congressional staffers, members of the media, embassy officials, citizens, and think-tanks on issues surrounding dealing with national missile defense and nuclear weapons reductions. Before that, she was a researcher at Riverside Research Institute, where she worked on war-gaming scenarios for the Missile Defense Agency's Directorate of Intelligence. Known throughout the space and security arena as a thought leader on policy and budgetary issues, Ms. Samson is often interviewed by multinational media outlets, including the New York Times, Space News, and NPR. She is also a prolific author of numerous op-eds, analytical pieces, journal articles, and updates on missile defense and space security matters.

Be sure to watch both episodes below PRIOR TO THE EVENT!

MILITARIZATION OF SPACE - PART I

This episode discusses the militarization of space in the shadow of the public-oriented space race between the United States and the former Soviet Union.

MILITARIZATION OF SPACE - PART II

This episode takes a closer look at how the program agendas of the three largest players in space (The United States, Russia, and China) have evolved over the last thirty years and the global security issues their interactions raise.