On‐Site Inspection Agency. On‐site inspection, a long‐term demand of the United States for verification of nuclear arms control and disarmaments agreements, was finally accepted by the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987. The verification provisions of the INF Treaty of December 1987 between the United States and USSR authorized on‐site inspectors to monitor and record the elimination of missiles. Consequently, the Department of Defense established a small, 40‐person agency to conduct and receive INF Treaty inspections; more than 230 on‐site inspections were conducted in the first year. In 1990, President George Bush signed the Threshold Test Ban Treaty, the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, and the Wyoming Memorandum of Understanding on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, each stipulating on‐site inspections. The On‐Site Inspection Agency expanded from 40 to 250 people. American inspection and escort teams consisted of military officers, noncommissioned officers (NCOs), and civilian specialists. The officers had experience as military attachés, foreign area officers, and/or weapons specialists. The NCOs served as translators.

In July 1991, Bush and Gorbachev signed the START I Treaty; nine months later, twenty‐seven nations concluded the Open Skies Treaty. Within a year, the United States had signed the START II Treaty (5 nations) and the Chemical Weapons Convention (153 nations). Each agreement included provisions for extensive monitoring through on‐site inspections. The On‐Site Inspection Agency expanded to 760 persons between 1991 and 1994.[See also Chemical and Biological Weapons and Warfare; START (1982).]

Bibliography

Joseph P. Harahan , On‐Site Inspections Under the INF Treaty, 1993.

Joseph P. Harahan