ABSTRACT
This chapter explores three distinct case studies of Earth from space are employed to underpin substantially different understandings of what global security might mean. It shows the role of space technologies and practices of Earth monitoring are considered in relation to security, the story is often told as one in which images of Earth from space have generally failed to deliver a substantive degree of global security consciousness. There are instances where US defence agencies rely even more on the framing of images of Earth viewed from space than they do iconography to assert the global significance of American defence and national security interests. In the iconography of US defence agencies historically, the view of Earth from space is used to denote military mastery of the globe and to make the claim that global security is synonymous with the extension of American power.
