Product Description

A revelatory look at the U.S. Government's plan to put weapons in outer space, by two bestselling experts.

"During the early portion of the twenty-first century, space power will also evolve into a separate and equal medium of warfare….The emerging synergy of space superiority with land, sea, and air superiority will lead to Full Spectrum Dominance."—from "U.S. Space Command Vision for 2020"

When most of us think about the potential of outer space for future generations, we think of world communications, satellite navigation, and scientific exploration. U.S. Space Command, however, thinks about weapons. Believing that conflict in space and wars fought from space are inevitable, the president has called on the agency to weaponize outer space and thus provoke an arms race that could cost the United States trillions of dollars and could lead to the demise of the human race.

In War in Heaven, a Nobel Prize-nominated peace activist and a former U.S. foreign service officer (who helped write the Outer Space Treaty of 1967) look at the history of military uses of space and the current plans for "militarizing the heavens," including kinetic, laser, nuclear bombardment, and anti-satellite weapons. Contrary to the claims of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that the United States faces a "space Pearl Harbor," Caldicott and Eisendrath show that the United States itself is today the principal obstruction to passage of an international treaty banning weapons from outer space.

At a time when plans to build and deploy space weapons are on the administration's agenda but only just becoming known to the general public, this book will help launch a national discussion of a critical issue.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #864219 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

About the Author
Helen Caldicott is the founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, president of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute, and a Nobel Peace Prize nominee. She divides her time between Australia and Washington, D.C. Craig Eisendrath is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and author, most recently, of Bush League Diplomacy. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Customer Reviews

Helen Describes Star Wars
This is not one of Helen's better works like New Nuclear Danger.

I bought War in Heaven hoping it would be very descriptive and detailed
like NND but it wasn't.

Just the same, it is a valuable reference work for anyone who
opposes World War In Space and more space junk floating around
everywhere, like "floaters" visible in the eyes of ageing people
as their inner eye comes apart.

It is best suited for students of Star Wars technology dangers.

I donated my copy to a public library.

A Well Done anti-Bush Polemical
This book is a history of the military uses of space, the treaties that exist about space, and the development of space oriented weapons. It is also a plea that we not militarize space. It is well written, well intended, well thought out but I'm afraid pointless.

Mankind has militarized everything. First the land, then the sea, then the air, next orbiting space based weapons systems and then the moon. And I have to say that I'm not so sure just where I personally stand on this.

One of the points made by the authors is that more money should be spent on foreign economic aid and situations like the aftermath of Katrina. This is going to be a hard sell. Most people believe that money given to foreign aid winds up in the hands of the local politicians and is not really helpful to the intended people. Money to the Katrina victums is one thing. Rebuilding New Orleans is an entirely different matter. It's a stupid place to build a city, the French knew it when the laid it out, which is why the French quarter remained dry. With rising sea waters from Global Warming, a rebuilt New Orleans is another disaster waiting to happen.

This book presents the side of the anti-weapon, anti-Bush (Eisendrath has also written: Bush League Diplomacy: How the Neoconservatives Are Putting the World at Risk) people. I think they have a hard sell before them