In May 2024, Elliott School Assistant Professor Aaron Bateman published his first monograph: Weapons in Space: Technology, Politics, and the Rise and Fall of the Strategic Defense Initiative. A few short months later, the Air Force Historical Foundation honored Dr. Bateman and his book with their 2024 Space History Book Prize. The award honors outstanding publications within a three-year publication window.
This is not the first time Bateman's research has received acclaim. Earlier this year, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) honored an early manuscript of Weapons in Space with its AIAA Aerospace History Manuscript. In addition, Professor Bateman's 2024 article, "Information Security in the Space Age: Britain’s Skynet Satellite Communications Program and the Evolution of Modern Command and Control Network," won the 2024 Amos Perlmutter Prize for top paper published by a junior faculty member in the Journal of Strategic Studies.
A former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, Bateman trained as a historian of science and technology. His work studies how technology shaped U.S. foreign relations, nuclear strategy, Western alliance dynamics, intelligence, and superpower competition during the Cold War. The exploration of the politics of large-scale technological systems is central to his research.
Weapons in Space examines Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). Drawing on recently declassified documents, Bateman situates SDI--or "Star Wars" as it was popularly known--within superpower space competition in the final decades of the Cold War. For more, check out the book's website from publisher MIT Press.