A farewell to the Open Skies Treaty, and an era of imaginative thinking

• Published in: Order from Chaos [BLOG]
• Main Author: Jenkins, Bonnie
• Format: Web Resource
• Language: English
• Published: Washington The Brookings Institution 16.06.2020
• Subjects: Agreements; Arms control & disarmament; Politics; Surveillance; Treaties; United States > US; Europe; Union of Soviet Socialist Republics > USSR; Russia

After having just worked on the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty — which outlined provisions aimed at establishing a military balance of conventional arms between NATO and the former Warsaw Pact countries, with detailed and complicated explanations for how to destroy each type of conventional weapon — working on the OST was definitely a change. The breakup of the Soviet Union also created three new states with nuclear weapons, adding to the desire for transparency. [...]the OST highlighted the importance of science diplomacy. On May 21, the Trump administration said the U.S. would exit the OST, despite a push by European allies, who tried to convince Trump to remain in the treaty: “We will continue to implement the Open Skies Treaty, which has a clear added value for our conventional arms control architecture and cooperative security.