Shooting for the Stars: Introducing the National Space and Ballistic Missile (NSBM) Dataset

Abstract

To what extent have space and ballistic missile capabilities proliferated globally and what impact have they had on global politics? To date, scholars have lacked a comprehensive data source on states’ global space capabilities and only limited data on their ballistic missile arsenals. The National Space and Ballistic Missile (NSBM) Dataset provides a new collection of data on states’ civilian and military rocketry programs and their presence in outer space, including information on states’ space launch capabilities, satellite capabilities, and human spaceflight. This data has potential applications for study of international security, international cooperation, and international political economy, especially as the importance of space assets continues to grow and greater numbers of countries gain access to space. This study illustrates a number of the important trends in the proliferation of space and missile capabilities revealed by our dataset. We also employ our new data to evaluate the role that supplier states have played in influencing the global proliferation of short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs). We find that supplier states appear to be strategically motivated in preferentially helping their defense pact allies obtain SRBMs.

Keywords: Ballistic Missiles, Space, Satellites, Space Launch Vehicles, International Relations, Security, Data