Paper Session III-C - Orbiting Sentinels For Security

For the past forty years, the threat of retaliation has been the foundation of our national security strategy. This threat has been the basis of the deterrent strategy which has helped maintain a relatively peaceful relationship between the world\u27s major powers. However, this strategy has also led to an expensive and possibly dangerous need to maintain large numbers of nuclear and conventional weapons around the world. These difficulties with retaliatory deterrence are the main reason for many of the alternative strategies which are being considered. One alternative is to move beyond threat in structuring our national security posture. New technical and political opportunities may now make promoting mutual security rather than mutual threat a realistic means of protecting our Interests. The advent and political acceptance of on-site- and space-based sensors and observers to verify compliance with arms control agreements has opened a new era of global stability and security. At the same time as nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles were being perfected, space-based observation systems were also coming to maturity. On the other hand, the provision for on-site observers to monitor treaty compliance on a large scale is a relatively recent phenomenon in the U.S.-Soviet relationship