International Surveillance Satellites - Open Skies for All?

Abstract

Since the early 1960s the US and the USSR have had a monopoly on highly detailed surveillance information gathered from satellites in orbits around the Earth. The information available from these satellites has created a situation of open skies between the superpowers. Insight into the other side's military activities has facilitated limited arms control results and stabilized crises While there are confidence-building advantages in this situation there are drawbacks to the monopoly Outside parties cannot verify one superpower's accusations of military supenonty over the other side. Such accusations fuel the arms race and have often been found to be incorrect. This has led to calls for international satellite surveillance to allow increased insight into the military affairs of the superpowers. Initiatives in this direction have been thwarted by US and USSR opposition and by economic, legal, and political difficulties. Civil remote-sensing satellites are now being launched and operated by several countries and organizations. There is an increasing interest in the news media for the use of remote-sensing satellite pictures to illustrate coverage of military-related news stones. Academic researchers have started to use remote-sensing satellite pictures for analysis of the arms race. These developments, although resisted by military circles, can help the realizations of proposals for international surveillance satellites which in the future can bring open skies for all