Transformational Strategist, Futurist, Tech-Scout 
Peter Garretson is an independent strategy and policy consultant and a Senior Fellow in Defense Studies at the American Foreign Policy Council. He was previously a transformational strategist for the USAF and an instructor at Air University's Air Command and Staff College where he leads the Space Horizons Research Task Force. He is currently writing a book on great power competition for space resources. He was previously Division Chief of Irregular Strategy, Plans and Policy, where his focus was on how the United States can enhance the legitimacy of partner nations through a whole-of-nation concept called Aviation Enterprise Development (AED), and proactively shape the peacetime Air Domain to deliver positive foreign policy, security, and economic outcomes for the United States and its partners. He has previously served as an Airpower strategist and strategic policy advisor to the Chief of Staff of the Air Force on his Strategic Studies Group, and four years as the Chief of Future Technology for HQ USAF Strategic Planning. He was the first serving US officer to serve as a visiting fellow at India’s premier strategic think tank, the Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis (IDSA) as a Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) international affairs fellow. Lt Col Garretson is a former DARPA service chief's intern, Los Alamos National Lab service academy research associate, senior pilot, and winner of the NSS Space Pioneer Award. Lt Col Garretson helped architect the Air Force Future Wargame Series from 2005-2009, as well as conceiving and executing the first-ever multi-agency deflection and disaster exercise and the first US-UK-France Trilateral strategic workshops. He was a collaborator in a number of strategic documents, including the 2011 National Military Strategy (NMS), the NSSO Study, the UAS Flight Plan, the Air Force Vision for Learning, Air Force Energy Horizons, DARPA 100 Year Starship, and was the initiator of the Air Force Strategic Environmental Assessment, Air Force Futures Group and Blue Horizons Program. He has published on a variety of topics including space policy, space strategy, scenario-based planning, using Space & Energy to advance to US-India Strategic Partnership, Space-Based Solar Power, Planetary Defense, the role of Science Fiction in Strategic Planning, the Future of Wargaming, Grid Computing, Augmented/Synthetic Reality, and Airpower in US strategy in Asia, and is currently writing a book on a vision and grand strategy for America in Space. His team won the SECDEF/SECSTATE Diplomacy Development Defense D3 Innovation Challenge. He is currently funded by the OSD MINERVA initiative to study contemporary great power attitudes toward space expansionism, territoriality, and resource nationalism.
Other Bios: CFR, IDSA, NSS, SIGMA, Lifeboat, Kurzweil, Mil Bio, Linked-In, Facebook Peter is currently working on a book on US Space Grand Strategy. What I'm about: I'm about catalyzing the long term survival and expansion of humanity into space. One day I'd like to run an organization or policy think tank dedicated to space development and becoming a spacefaring civilization. See Peter's talk, "A Billion Year Plan" at the Starship Congress here: "One of the most inspiring and informative talks on the future of humanity ever. @GarretsonPeter is one of our heroes!" -- Project Ion New Talk: "What's your map?"News: The Space Solar Proposal #D3SSP won 4 awards in the SECDEF D3 Innovation Challenge on 3 Mar 2016. Learn more at http://d3ssp.org/ Publications & Interviews:• “Is the Senate Ready to Protect American Interests in Space?,” The Hill, September 11, 2019, Sole Author • “A Historic National Vision for Space Power,” War on the Rocks, September 9, 2019, Sole Author • The Future of Space 2060 and Implications for U.S. Strategy: Report on the Space Futures Workshop, Air Force Space Command, September 5, 2019, contributing author • “US Space Command: A vision for the Final Frontier,” The Hill, August 28, 2019, Sole Author • “Air Force Suppressed Space Force Debate; Lt. Gen. Kwast Spoke Truth To Power,” Breaking Defense, August 8, 2019, Sole Author • “SPACE FORCE’S JUPITER-SIZED CULTURE PROBLEM,” War on the Rocks, July 11, 2019, Sole Author • “The Future of the Asian Order Will Be Decided in Space,” The Diplomat, July 3, 2019, Sole Author • “Why the next Space Policy Directive needs to be to the Secretary of Energy,” The Space Review, July 1, 2019, Sole Author • “The purpose of a Space Force is a spacefaring economy,” The Hill, June 26, 2019, Sole Author • “OPINION: The first duty of a Space Force is to protect space commerce,” Politico, June 21, 2019, Sole Author • “Critical Shifts in India’s Outer Space Policy,” The Diplomat, April 16, 2019 with Namrata Goswami • “Updating the Laws of War for the 21st Century: Time to Reconsider, and Ban, Modern Nation-Killing Acts,” The Mitchell Institute Papers, April 2019 with David Stuckenberg • “Become the Hydra: Setting Leadership Expectations for Degraded Environments”, Over the Horizon Journal (republished in 1 year anniversary issue), December 31, 2018 with Jonathan D. Sawtelle • “Chapter 5: The Nine Distinctions: Where China has it Right and China Differs from the US in Outer Space”, in Chinese Perspectives on Space Operations and Escalation (A Strategic Multilayer Assessment (SMA) Periodic Publication), Joint Staff, August 2018, Sole Author • “Chapter 21: What’s Up There? Space ‘By the Numbers’”, in AU-18 Space Primer, Air University, 27 Aug 2018, Sole Author • “Now We Can Start to Defend Planet Earth”, Over the Horizon Journal, July 27, 2018, Sole Author • “Is India looking toward space-based resources?”, The Space Review, 2 October 2017, with Namrata Goswami  2017: Democratizing the Tactile / Kinesthetic Arts. Linkedin, 18 Sep 2017. Abstract: There was a time when if you wanted to see art, you had to go to a museum; if you wanted to hear music, you had to pay a musician; if you wanted to see dance you had to go to the ballet. There was even a time when if you wanted to know a story you had to sit at the feet of a bard. 2017: Beatific Vision: Revolutionizing Aesthetic Space. Linkedin, 18 Sep 2017. Abstract: We are about to be witness to a revolution in the aesthetic space. Deep reinforcement learning algorithms and large available data sets are going to allow our entire computer-mediated economy to wake up to beauty. This will positively transform our entertainment, products, and neighborhoods. 2017: Term Paper Apocalypse. Linkedin, 18 Sep 2017. Abstract: AI is about to destroy the academic system as we know it. We've seen previews before--the controversy surrounding the introduction of calculators and reduction in manual calculation; the lamentation over decreasing handwriting skills for word processing. All that is tiny compared to what is obviously coming. 2017: USAF Strategic Development of a Domain. Over the Horizon, 10 July 2017. Abstract: Are Airmen doing a good job with strategy? How much of our strategy starts “right of bang” with the efficient movement of our pieces? The success of our past and future battles depends on a lot more than what we do with our platforms — it depends on what platforms we have developed, where we have based them, and our partner building capacity. This is true not just in the Air Domain but in every domain in which we maneuver to create effects. Baron Antoine Henri de Jomini said, “Strategy is the art of making war upon the map.” So where do we read how to set up the map in the first place? 2017: Cosmic Girl's Stiletto. Over the Horizon, 19 July 2017. Abstract: Virgin Galactic has done something very clever. For about $4M, they have modified a Boeing 747 to be able to travel as far as 1,000 nm and then launch a small satellite into orbit. This is going to provide industry—and potentially the Air Force—with a responsive launch-on-demand capability it has never had. 2017: Better than Paris: space solar power. The Space Review, 19 Jun 2017. Abstract: A national program in space-based solar power (SBSP) could do more for solving climate change than the Paris Accord ever could. SBSP is the advanced energy source that “shovel ready,” is fully renewable, produces no greenhouse gases, is not intermittent, has 24-hour availability, could be made-in-America and could scale to all global demand six times over. Within a generation, we could transform our society to abundant clean energy, enable a $300-trillion global economy, create five million new jobs, drive all carbon emissions to zero, and then have spare energy to suck carbon out of the air. 2017: BECOME THE HYDRA: SETTING LEADERSHIP EXPECTATIONS FOR DEGRADED ENVIRONMENTS. Over The Horizon, 2 Feb 2017. Abstract: The Joint Force faces an operational environment where adversaries are developing advanced electronic warfare (EW), offensive cyber, anti-satellite (ASAT), anti-High Value Airborne Asset (A-HVAA), counter space, and precision strike capabilities all designed to negate US airpower. These efforts are specifically designed to take vital command, control and communication networks offline. Investing in protective measures is not enough. Military leaders must anticipate conducting operations in a context of adversaries seeking to slow or paralyze operational tempo by disrupting information and logistical supply chains. Accordingly, the military must create a culture of leadership that provides an antidote to such disruption. One way to create that culture is by developing numerous exercises and wargames where leaders get a chance to observe how their teammates think and function in the absence of command links. Another remedy is to promulgate a set of force-wide expectations that apply at all levels, providing a moral compass individuals should prepare for and act when in prosecuting commander’s intent during adversary-induced isolation. 2017: Are China and the US Set for a Showdown in Space? Conversations with Chinese experts highlight several misperceptions about China’s ambition in space. The Diplomat, 28 Jan 2017. Abstract: China’s space program is clearly of interest to U.S. policymakers and strategists. Academics have invested significant effort in researching China’s civil and military capabilities as well as its space goals. Much of this analysis mirrors the U.S. understanding of space as fitting into categories of espionage, military use, and scientific exploration. While our literature survey uncovered numerous examples of influential space officials expressing ambitious Chinese goals for the utilization of in-space resources, we sought “ground truth” regarding the extent the which such views had permeated the larger strategy and policy community. As U.S. policymakers begin to think about how to approach China regarding norms for space property and resource utilization, it is important to remove what might be forgivable but important misconceptions. Read a spirited counter here. 2016: Dear President Trump: Here's How to Make Space Great Again. Wired Magazine, 14 Dec 2016. Abstract: PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP often says that Americans no longer dream and must do so again. Nowhere can dreams be more inspiring and profitable than in space. But today, expanding space enterprise is not foremost on the minds of Americans or military strategists. The first step to make space great again is for the United States to offer a constructive vision that can satisfy many American space needs, including defense. The Trump administration has an opportunity to transcend pessimism in space and focus America where it thrives: aggressive yet peaceful competition. 2016: A national space policy for this century. The Space Review, 29 Sep 2016. Abstract: We have examined what we think will be the key strategic competitions our nation will face, and what sort of policy will be required for the United States to prevail in the space domain—a domain we expect will be hyper-competitive and central to the future of power in the international system. New times and new technological and social realities demand a new and different tone. In the policy draft that follows, we have attempted to bring a clean-sheet approach to a national space policy and allow it to be forward-looking—at least as far as the captains of US industry and the luminaries of other nations have already articulated. Related Interview: This article got the attention of The Space Show and resulted in a short Interview on The Space Show, 27 Nov 2016. 2016: OFFSETTING AIR SUPERIORITY WITH AIR FORCE SPECIAL OPERATIONS. War on the Rocks (WOTR), 3 Nov 2016. Abstract: At a time when adversaries are hard at work to make power projection increasingly difficult for the Air Force, its special tactics community represents a substantial human capital investment that cannot remain marginalized in the strategic cul-de-sac of merely supporting land operations. They can be re-imagined as a cross-domain force to accomplish L-SEAD, penetrating counter-air, and penetrating air denial. 2016: National Intelligence Council: Lost in Space?. War is Boring, 29 Sep 2016. Abstract: The NIC's Global Trends documents lay out the mega-trends for the President-Elect...why are they ignoring space? Is this a strategic blindspot of detriment to the United States? Related Interview: This article got the attention NPR and resulted in a short Interview on NPR Marketplace, 3 Oct 2016. 2016: Alabama should lead in space solar power. Montgomery Advertiser, 24 Mar 2016. Abstract: Being the first to establish Space Solar Power systems will establish who is the “Saudi Arabia of Green Energy.” Space Solar Power is as significant an industrial development as the airplane, the automobile, the locomotive, or the steam ship. It will determine which is the richest and most powerful nation on earth and beyond. 2016: Interview The Space Show 6 Mar 2016. 2015: An Aerospace Nation. Strategic Studies Quarterly, Winter 2015. Abstract: Aerospace is deeply connected to US identity—its power and place in the world. Progress in aerospace opened doors to new methods of travel, economic prosperity, and the means to shelter and defend the nation. 2015: Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War Book Review, Air University Website Ghost Fleet is a must read for those interested in the future of conflict. Imaginative and thoughtful, the authors have drawn together a diverse set of evolving trends in modern warfare—from “hybrid war” to cutting-edge technological developments in cyber, directed-energy, and unmanned systems—and woven them into a scenario of great power conflict in the near future. 2015: Ghost Fleet: A Vision of Future Warfare, The Book Review India Ghost Fleet is a must read for those interested in the future of conflict. Imaginative, thoughtful, the authors have drawn together a diverse set of evolving trends in modern warfare—from ‘hybrid war’ to cutting-edge technological developments in cyber, directed energy and unmanned systems—and woven them into a scenario of great power conflict in the near future where they all interact. 2015: Air University Concept for Space Solar Power makes Secretary of Defense's Innovation Challenge Semi-Finals. Air University Press Release, 13 Nov 2015. Abstract: An interagency proposal which began at Air University's Center for Space Innovation, titled "Carbon-Free Energy for Global Resilience and International Goodwill" has been selected for semi-finals in the Secretary of Defense's innovation challenge for the D3 (Diplomacy, Development, Defense) summit. The team is proposing the idea of Space Solar Power Satellites to a summit of senior leaders from the Department of Defense, the US Agency for International Development, and the US Department of State as a whole-of-nation way the US can re-assert US leadership in space, energy and other technologies, amplify the US leadership in the fight against climate change, create a huge number of US jobs and position the US as clean energy exporter, and rekindle America's spirit to do great things. MRCA source selection remains a significant opportunity for India to advance its security and expand its freedom of action at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels. Overall, a US selection best serves the Indian grand strategic goal of inclusive growth by deepening its economic relationship, linking technical and industrial bases, and lessening the chance of distracting conflict. It would have immediately put fighters in India’s hands to stem the bleeding of aged platforms that is undermining its ability to maintain Air Superiority and deterrence, and provide an unparalleled opportunity for India to expand its influence globally, as the US is and is likely to remain India’s chief patron as it seeks increased global influence. 2015: MMRCA: A New Strategic Opportunity. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 26 Aug 2015. Abstract: MMRCA source selection remains a significant opportunity for India to advance its security and expand its freedom of action at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels. Overall, a US selection best serves the Indian grand strategic goal of inclusive growth by deepening its economic relationship, linking technical and industrial bases, and lessening the chance of distracting conflict. It would have immediately put fighters in India’s hands to stem the bleeding of aged platforms that is undermining its ability to maintain Air Superiority and deterrence, and provide an unparalleled opportunity for India to expand its influence globally, as the US is and is likely to remain India’s chief patron as it seeks increased global influence.
2015: Aviation and Health. with Col James Chambers, Mr. Mort Rolleston, Col Jeffrey Alder, Col Peter Podbielski, ASPJ May-Jun 2015. Abstract: The US Air Force (USAF) can significantly contribute to both aviation enterprise and health systems in a synergistic fashion, providing incentive to potential PNs to work with the United States in shared security objectives. 2015: Starfleet was closer than you think. with Major Brent Ziarnick, SpaceReview, 16 Mar 2015 Abstract: The USAF leadership of 1963 had plans to build a giant space-fleet of nuclear powered spacecraft. Had personalities been different, America today might be reaching for the stars. 2014: Enabling the 2nd Generation in Space: Building Blocks for Large Scale Space Endeavors. with David Barnhart (DARPA) and Willer Willons, JBIS Vol 67, No 04 "100 Year Starship Study 2011: Time Distance Solutions, April 2014 Abstract: 2014: . Observer Research Foundation (ORF), 23 June 2014 Abstract: Organizations or philanthropists concerned about the water problem needn't wait for government action. They could "steal the initiative" and partner with an organization like XPRIZE to create a social gaming and collaborative consumption application. Open-source it, crowd-source it, crowd-fund it. For a few million dollars, a prize competition could -- in just a couple years -- create a mobile application that would revolutionize the global water situation. Third party actors could end-run states to create a world-wide transparency of real-time water flows and usage that could enhance human security and prosperity, and do what it seems states are unable to do. . 2014: . Observer Research Foundation (ORF), 11 April 2014 Abstract: The proposed International Code of Conduct (ICOC) for outer space activities fails to address some fundamental equities related to the future of space, and the agendas of the Asian space powers.
2014: . The Space Review, 7 April 2014
Abstract: The proposed International Code of Conduct (ICOC) for outer space activities fails to address some fundamental equities related to the future of space, and the agendas of the Asian space powers.
2014:
. ASPJ March April (Front Cover Spanish Version of ASPJ!) Abstract: In both Spacecast 2020 and Air Force 2025, a visionary Air Force of two decades ago foresaw a future role and mission of protecting planet Earth. The meteor strike over Chelyabinsk, a major Russian military industrial town, which injured 1,100 people and cost $33 million should be a wake-up call. I argue that the mission is highly consonant with our other war-fighting requirements (space situational awareness [SSA] and space control) and that it offers the Air Force a deep-space mission which would create requirements advancing propulsion, proximity operations, and noncooperative capture. Moreover, the mission would give our service a visionary quality as a global force for good that would be inspiring, aid recruiting, and attract public support. I also argue that Airmen should prepare themselves for a world in which billionaire-backed private companies like Planetary Resources Incorporated and Deep Space Industries can survey, access, move, and mine asteroids. In such a world, wealth in and from space amounts to more than just bits, and our economy moves outward into the inner solar system. 2014:
. DISAM Journal, 17 March Abstract: The United States Air Force (USAF) describes AED as “the plans, programs, and activities undertaken to develop the system-of-systems necessary for a nation to optimize employment of national aviation resources. The total aviation resource capacity and capability of a nation is defined by the sum total of all air domain resources including humans, aircraft, processes and infrastructure in both the civilian and military/security sectors.” This article suggests a starting point for such a whole-of-government AED vision. It achieves this by first highlighting the importance of the global air domain to American strategic and economic interests overall and reminding that these benefits came, in part, from similar deliberative, strategic US AED assistance after World War II. The article then argues why America should once again think strategically about its AED assistance given that US strategic and economic interests are becoming increasingly tied to the emerging economies of Southeast Asia, South Asia, Africa, and Latin America, which are all poised to greatly expand their aviation enterprise. 2013: Finding Strategic Balance: How Should the USAF Balance Continuing Irregular Requirements with High-end A2/AD Requirements?. Small Wars Journal, 23 December
 Abstract: How should the USAF balance continuing irregular requirements with high-end A2/AD requirements? Should the USAF: 1. Continue on the current path, purchasing an exquisite force of the most capable high-end platforms (F-35) able to penetrate and survive in a contested environment, assuming they can handle air operations in a more benign environment as a lesser included case, or 2. Commit to a balanced force, trading some of our niche high-end fighter forces to finance investment in low-end aircraft more appropriate for irregular operations and shaping? 2013: USAF Updates Its Irregular Warfare Strategy to Address Strategic Guidance. Small Wars Journal, 23 December
Abstract: The Secretary of the Air Force and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force recently signed an updated United States Air Force (USAF) Irregular Warfare (IW) Strategy to provide direction for the USAF to organize, train, and equip to provide capabilities necessary to meet strategic guidance.
2013: Air Advising: A Critical Component of Joint Engagement. Joint Forces Quarterly, June 17, 2013. |
Abstract: I provide a basic overview of how the US defense acquisition system functions.
Abstract: A brief web-overview of the concept and importance of space solar power.
Along with other key advocates at IDSA, a group of us helped craft the concept note for the first Asian Security conference to focus specifically at the long term future. That project both initiated and gave birth to several subsequent projects.
The future trends work started with the Asian Security Conference continued. 
The initial work generated from the Asian Security Conference became of interest to Indian policymakers. This polished version details a number of important trends identified by IDSA scholars and edited by my colleagues.
