Dueling Agendas
November 23, 2020
The United States has withdrawn from the Open Skies Treaty. The 2002 treaty allows for unmanned areal flights over member nations territories, a concept first proposed by Dwight Eisenhower in 1955. The treaty allows such flights under controlled conditions. Interestingly member nations avail themselves of them much less than might be supposed, and each flight is extremely expensive. Both the US and the USSR have accused each other of cheating on the treaty.
As a practical matter, the treaty matters less and less every year as intelligence satellites get better and better. Indeed, it's notable that it was drafted in 2002 at which point intelligence satellites were already excellent. Therefore the treaty is really of more value to the less advanced nations that are part of it.
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