Space Security Program

Key Element: An International Convention Prohibiting Space Warfare

< Building Block: Prohibiting Interference of National Technical Means >

The accomplishments of superpower arms control during the Cold War were greatly facilitated by the ability of both the United States and the Soviet Union to monitor each other’s military activities by objects in space and by other technical devices. Noninterference with these national technical means, and mutual acknowledgement of their centrality to strategic and crisis stability, paved the way for more relaxed national postures toward transparency. Growing tolerance for transparency, in turn, facilitated more meaningful limits and reductions on nuclear and conventional forces. These breakthroughs were predicated on intrusive, ground-based inspections, but purposeful on-site inspections remained intimately linked to observations from space.

Precedents

1. 1972 Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT)
• Each Party undertakes not to interfere with the national technical means of verification of the other Party operating in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article (Article V, 2).
2. 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM)
• Each Party undertakes not to interfere with the national technical means of verification of the other Party operating in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article (Article II, 2).
3. 1974 Threshold Test Ban Treaty
• Each Party undertakes not to interfere with the national technical means of verification of the other Party operating in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article. (Article II, 2).
4. 1976 Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaty
• Each Party undertakes not to interfere with the national technical means of verification of the other Party operating in accordance with paragraph 1(a) of this article (IV, 2).
5. 1987 Intermediate- Range Nuclear Forces Treaty
• Neither Party shall: interfere with national technical means of verification of the other Party operating in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article (Article VII, 2a).
6. 1990 Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty
• A State Party shall not interfere with national or multinational technical means of verification of another State Party operating in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article (Article XV, 2).
7. 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty
• Each Party undertakes not to interfere with the national technical means of verification of the other Party operating in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article (Article IX, 2).

 

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