Extension of the Open Skies Treaty as a Contribution to European Security
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Political Perspectives and Technical Options

Contact:

Publications

In this project we study the problems and options related to an extension of the Open Skies Treaty. The questions of additional membership, enhanced fields of application and inclusion of multispectral sensors are to be analyzed from a political, legal and technical point of view. Particular emphasis is put on the potential of multispectral sensors and image processing to military transparency and environmental monitoring.

The investigation is carried out by a cooperation of Prof. Dr. Pál Dunay, Budapest (international law and foreign relations), and the remote sensing group of the Center for Science and International Security in the University of Hamburg ( CENSIS ). The contribution of CENSIS focuses on the acquisition and analysis of multispectral aerial imagery for arms control verification and environmental monitoring.

In particular the following items will be addressed:

• Analysis of the overall contribution of the Open Skies Treaty to European security on the background of other political frameworks and rapidly changing conditions.
• Experience with treaty implementation and questions of ratification.
• Political and legal preconditions and implications of including additional states as parties of the Treaty.
• Political and legal steps to be taken in order to extend the application of the Treaty to additional fields, in particular environmental monitoring and desaster monitoring. Legal provisions to be made for opening the access of information to non-state actors.
• Evaluation of the potential of hyperspectral imagery for Open Skies applications based on analysis of the data taken by the CENSIS group and literature studies.
• Specification and recommendation of a multispectral scanner for an enhancement of the Open Skies Treaty.
• Contributions to multispectral classification algorithms with respect to the Open Skies verification regime.

• Hartwig Spitzer,
  GRÜNES LICHT FÜR OPEN SKIES - August 2001
  Hörfunkmanuskript, NDR 4, August 2001
  
  
• Hartwig Spitzer, Rafael Wiemker
  Perspectives for Open Skies: Technical, Operational and Political Aspects
  Fourth International Airborne Remote Sensing Conference and Exhibition, Ottawa, Canada, vol. I, pp. 27-34, 1999.
  (postscript 0.9 MB) or (PDF 0.5 MB)
  
  
• Hartwig Spitzer,
  Zum Stand des Open Skies Vertrages - Januar 1998
  Hörfunkmanuskript, NDR 4, 23. Januar 1998
  
  
• Hartwig Spitzer,
  Offener Himmel über Bosnien - Politische Perspektiven und technische Optionen
  Wissenschaft und Frieden, 4/97, p.57-59, 1997
  pdf (15 MB)
  
  
• Hartwig Spitzer
  Potential of the Open Skies Regime and Sensor Suite for Environmental Monitoring,
  Proceedings of the Third International Airborne Remote Sensing Conference and Exhibition, Copenhagen, July 1997, vol. I, p.9-16. ERIM, Ann Arbor 1997. postscript (50 KB) or pdf (70 KB)
  
  
• Rafael Wiemker, Hartwig Spitzer
  Änderungsdetektion auf multispektralen Luftbildern - Perspektiven für den Open-Skies-Vertrag
  in J. Altmann, G. Neuneck (Hg.): Naturwissenschaftliche Beiträge zu Abrüstung und Verifikation, Verhandlungen der Fachsitzung auf der 60. Physikertagung der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft in Jena 1996, S.138-151. FONAS/DPG, Hamburg 1996.
  postscript (2.0 MB) or pdf (1.0 MB)
  
  
• Rafael Wiemker, Hartwig Spitzer
  Brief on the Open Skies Treaty,
  in M. Krepon, K. Khoja (eds.): Handbook of Confidence Building Measures for Regional Security, H.L.Stimson Center, Washington 1998.
  (html or postscript)
  
  
• Hartwig Spitzer, Rafael Wiemker, Anja Speck, Johann Bienlein
  Robuste unbeaufsichtigte Änderungsdetektion auf Multispektralbildern für Monitoring-Anwendungen im Rahmen des Open-Skies-Vertrages
  in J. Altmann, G. Neuneck (Hg.): Naturwissenschaftliche Beiträge zu Abrüstung und Verifikation, Verhandlungen der Fachsitzung auf der 61. Physikertagung der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft in München, March 17-21, 1997. FONAS/DPG, Hamburg 1997, in print.
  postscript (6.8 MB) or pdf (3 MB)
  
  
• Hartwig Spitzer,
  The Open-Skies Treaty as a tool for confidence building and arms control verification, in: Proceedings of the 18th ISODARCO Summer Course: The Weapons Legacy of the Cold War - Technical problems and opportunities, Certosa di Pontignano, Siena, Italy, 29th July - 8th August 1996
  (postscript 0.1 MB)
  
  
• Hartwig Spitzer
  The Open Skies Treaty: A Cooperative Approach to Confidence Building and Verification
  in D. Schroeer, A. Pascolini (eds.): The Weapons Legacy of the Cold War - Problems and Opportunities, p. 163-176, ISBN 1-85521-945-X, Ashgate, Aldershot 1997.
  
  
• Hartwig Spitzer,
  Perspektiven für einen Offenen Himmel - Erfolge, Blockaden, Chancen
  Hörfunkmanuskript, NDR 4, 4. April 1997
  
  
• newspaper clip on OPEN SKIES
  seminar in Sarajevo, February 1997
  
  
  

• Johann K. Bienlein,
  Das Europäische Satellitenprojekt,
  Wissenschaft und Frieden, 1/96, S.60-61, 1996.
  (pdf 7 MB)
  
  

• Christian Drewniok, Carsten Schröder, Harald Lange, Leonie Dreschler-Fischer,
  Automatisierte Bildauswertung als Hilfsmittel zur Verifikation,
  in: U. Kronfeld, W. Baus, B. Ebbesen, M. Jathe (Hrsg.), Naturwissenschaft und Abrüstung - Forschungsprojekte an deutschen Hochschulen, S.46-69, Lit Verlag, ISBN 3-89473-598-8, Münster 1993.

Reports:

• Hartwig Spitzer,
  New developments in Open-Skies (June 1997), (postscript 52 KB)
  in `Trust and Verifiy, VERTIC, London 1997
  
  
• Hartwig Spitzer,
  Open Skies over Bosnia (June 1997), (postscript 77 KB)
  
  
• Hartwig Spitzer,
  Open-Skies Update (September 1997)
  in `Trust and Verifiy, VERTIC, London 1997
  
  

For more publications see the research group for

"Physical aspects of multispectral remote sensing"

Two of the authors (R. Wiemker, left, and H. Spitzer, right) during the American Open Skies test flight in Hungary, Tököl airfield near Budapest, October 1996.

CENSIS
Center for Science and International Security
at the University of Hamburg

Science has become both a tool and a driving force of the worldwide technology race. This race has a growing impact on the global military and environmental security. In 1988 scientists from different branches of the University of Hamburg -- mathematics, physics, computer science and chemistry -- have formed a working group on these issues. It is the objective of the group to perform research, to initiate teaching programs and to provide public information.

Teaching projects include regular seminars on international security and remote sensing. The group cooperates locally with the department of political sciences, the Hamburg Peace Research Institute (IFSH) as well as the commission on technology assessment of the University of Hamburg. Funding has been provided by the Volkswagen-Foundation. The group welcomes international cooperation.

Last update June 1997 by Rafael Wiemker