Revisiting the Utility of OPEN SKIES

The treaty of open skies was signed in 1992 and in 2002 it came into effect with 34 members. The treaty permits the signatory countries to monitor the developments of arms and its related technologies through unarmed aerial surveillance flights in each other’s territories. The treaty allows for maximum ground resolution of the images which can be compared on similar grounds to that of the commercial satellites. Further, all weather monitoring is possible through the use of coherent synthetic aperture thermal infrared sensors and the date can be made available to all the treaty participants. Also, the treaty has provisions for the mutual inspections of the aircraft to ensure fairness by each other so that no covertly added highly sophisticated digital cameras or sensors are added. The treaty has an open skies consultative commission in which decisions are taken through a consensus thereby treating all the signatories in an equal manner.

The treaty was first proposed to the Soviet Union in 1955 by the then US president Eisenhower so as to reduce accidental wars. The concept thus belonged to the Cold War days. Today, far more sophisticated technical monitoring capabilities for overhead imageries exist such as reconnaissance satellites that are able to penetrate the military camouflage to gain critical information of the positioning of the tactical as well as nuclear weapons. Then the question that arises is what purpose does this treaty serve and why is it important for the US and Russia to continue their presence in the treaty? The answer boils down to as simple terms as that of Confidence Building Mechanisms (CBMs) and regime building which are ways to move further towards cooperative security arrangements. The political benefit that comes along in maintaining transparency to ensure arms control through verifiable reductions is of extreme importance since the treaty has provisions for short notice unrestricted access of the unarmed flights. If in place and functional it can help achieve the stated goals of nuclear non-proliferation by checking the compliance to various other treaties and lead towards more meaningful negotiations in the arms control regimes.

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