Managing Escalation Across Multiple Domains

Some thoughts on how the US manages escalation in the space and cyber domains…

The US has virtually ruled out a response using military force in the air, at sea, or on the land. US fighters will not contest Ukrainian airspace, and US warships are unlikely to attack their Russian counterparts or deliver ordnance from sea to land. The prospect of US soldiers fighting in Ukraine seems particularly remote. But of course, the United States has lots of tools in the toolbox. In a previous column, I discussed how the United States is considering using its weapons in what we might call the “financial domain.”  Here, we can think about the steps that the United States might take in space and in the cyber domain.