Marquardt, APSA 2005 (Aug. 23, 2005)
The main purpose of this mutual aerial observation agreement is to provide for
greater openness and transparency of military activities in North America and Eurasia.
The hallmark of the treaty is the right of mutual aerial observation by means of a unique
set of flight quotas. Each State Party is required to accept aerial observation of its own
territory by other States Parties to the treaty. It is also entitled to conduct observation
flights of other States Parties. (The sum of flights a state must accept of its territory by
another state in a year’s time is its “passive quota.” The sum of the flights it can conduct
over the territory of other states is its “active quota.”) No state is required to accept more
flights than it is allowed to conduct.
The treaty establishes a maximum number of
flights each state is required to accept, leaving the issue of how each state’s total
passive quota will be distributed to annual review conferences. For the most part, the
geographic size of the territory of a state (in square kilometers) determines its total pas
sive quota: the larger a state’s territory, the greater the number of observation flights it
may have to accept (and, as a result, that it may be able to conduct over others).
The
treaty also specifies flight distances and paths, and how flights are to be conducted. The
observing state enjoys unlimited aerial observation of the territory of the host state.
Flight distance is determined by the size of a host state’s territory and the number of
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Further, with the consent of the host state, each observing state can transfer some or all of the
individual active quota which applies to that host state to a third state party. Yet the number of
flights one observing state can conduct over the territory of a host state cannot exceed one-half of
the host state’s total passive quota. Two or more states are allowed to form a group or coalition
for the purpose of conducting and accepting the observation flights. While between or among
them they can redistribute their individual and total active quotas, coalition partners cannot
assume each other’s passive quotas. Though they may not be coalition partners, states can
nevertheless conduct joint observation flights of a host state; however, every flight of this sort
reduces the respective quota of each state involved – both observing and observed – by one.
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Yet strict proportionality does not apply across the board. All states agree to accept a minimum
number of annual flights. Also, the West European great powers have agreed to total passive
quotas greater than the minimum specified by their geographic size. They have done so in order
to play a more active role in the treaty process, assuming, of course, that other states will want to
conduct more flights over their territories. Also, during the first three years of the treaty coming
into force, states are required to accept fights over their territory equaling 75 percent of their
passive quotas. After this initial period, however, they may be called upon to accept 100 percent
of their passive quotas.
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Convention