Graduation Year

2026

Date of Submission

4-2026

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Government

Reader 1

Professor Lisa Koch

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

ChadMcElroy

Abstract

The initiation of the Golden Dome for America program has brought space-based missile defense (SBMD) to the forefront of American national security policy and rekindled debates that had laid dormant since the administration of President Ronald Reagan. How, forty-two years after President Reagan first proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative, did SBMD return as a national priority? In lieu of public information about the ongoing Golden Dome initiative, this thesis explores the first Trump administration, otherwise known as Trump 45, in order to analyze the development of SBMD proposals by its proponents in Congress and the Department of Defense. I used qualitative research, interviews, and the Advocacy Coalition Framework to identify the key actors in this period and describe their actions as part of the broader history of American SBMD. Ultimately, I argue that advocates within the Department of Defense significantly contributed to the story of SBMD by establishing the Space Development Agency, an organization whose mission to build a missile tracking and data relay satellite constellation effectively institutionalized SBMD advocacy within the Pentagon for years to come. The success of the SDA serves as an example of how institution-building can be used to further policy advocacy during inopportune political environments, but the uncertain future of the SDA suggests that this strategy may not always last.

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