Issue Briefs
Geospatial Intelligence–‘Geoint’–Becomes A Focus Of Military & Economic Competition (From Forbes)
Loren B. Thompson
December 11th, 2020
After dominating the use of geospatial intelligence for decades, the United States is beginning to fall behind other nations, particularly in fostering a commercial ‘geoint’ industry. The science of using satellites to relate human activity to geography is equally useful for national security and economic purposes, but other nations in Asia and Europe have done far more to make the commercial side of the business attractive to investors. Existing federal policy makes it easier for China to dominate this and other facets of space activity, a goal that Beijing has set for itself by mid-century. If the U.S. wants to continue leading in space, and geoint in particular, it needs to do a better job of relating national security space policy to national economic goals. I have written a commentary for Forbes here.
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Loren B. Thompson is a Senior Adviser at GPI, Chief Operating Officer of the non-profit Lexington Institute and Chief Executive Officer of Source Associates, a for-profit consultancy. Prior to holding his present positions, he was Deputy Director of the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University and taught graduate-level courses in strategy, technology and media affairs at Georgetown. He has also taught at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Mr. Thompson holds doctoral and masters degrees in government from Georgetown University and a bachelor of science degree in political science from Northeastern University |