European Institute

(September 29)  After years of discussion and debate, Germany is moving to end military conscription—re-introduced in 1956, in an effort to break with the militaristic past and create a “citizen in uniform.” Earlier this week, German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel announced agreement of the governing conservative parties to abolish the draft in accordance with a proposal by German defense minister, Karl-Theodore zu Guttenberg.

The Czech Republic and, more surprisingly, Slovakia, have announced plans to participate in the U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system in Europe by hosting parts of the network on their soil. Poland has already signed up as a site for deploying part of the planned system.

On December 21, 1968, Apollo 8 launched from Cape Canaveral. A few days later, on Christmas Eve, its crew became the first humans to enter the gravitational pull of another body away from the home planet. The crew’s reading of Genesis from lunar orbit captivated a worldwide audience, and the astronauts brought home what may have been the most profound photograph in history: the famous “Earthrise” showing the blue planet Earth rising over the moon’s desolation, suspended in the dark of space. This was a stunning moment in the history of exploration, leading to the Apollo 11 landing a few months later.

The Obama administration has unveiled a broad set of national space policies that emphasize the President’s desire for a fresh approach to international cooperation in the space community – possibly including arms control accords about space. Until now, the U.S. has been a lone hold-out against the calls for such treaties concerning space and the goal of progress on “demilitarizing” space.