Geospatial Intelligence–‘Geoint’–Becomes A Focus Of Military & Economic Competition (From Forbes)

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.