Poking and prying for peace
An ordinary building in an industrial park near Washington's Dulles Airport houses one arm of the US military that may be immune from budget cuts. Its offices resemble those of the software and engineering firms that surround it - except for the fragments of destroyed missiles used as wall decorations. This is the headquarters of the On-Site Inspection Agency (OSIA), whose main job is verifying the destruction of weapons, an area of explosive growth. Founded in 1988 to enforce the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, OSIA will face increasing responsibilities as major new arms control agreements come on line. Verifying the Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (START) and the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) pact will mean new teams of experts, new linguists, and new equipment. Enforcing other agreements, such as treaty banning chemical weapons (currently being negotiated in Geneva), could spur even more growth, and may require new technologies. OSIA is the most visible symbol of what might be called the verification revolution.' A decade ago it was unthinkable that US inspectors would live near a Soviet missile factory or that Soviet inspectors might be feted at a backyard barbecue in Utah, or that a new treaty would list the specific steps involved in destroying an armored vehicle.
- OSTI ID:
- 6960833
- Journal Information:
- Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists; (United States), Vol. 47:10; ISSN 0096-5243
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) deterrence and defense after the INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces) treaty. Final report, June 1988-June 1989
On-site Inspection Agency (OSIA) FY 1998-2003 program objective memorandum (POM)