Atoms for Peace: A Model for Space?

For Dwight Eisenhower, the use of atomic weapons at the conclusion of the Second World War and the successful detonation just before his election of the first US hydrogen device (800 times more powerful than the bombs used on Japan), left him convinced that von Clausewitz's notion of war as an extension of politics had become obsolete. The continuing development of the destructive power of nuclear weapons in the US and the Soviet Union was destined to lead either to, at best, the instability of an arms race of indefinite proportions, or a war of unthinkably horrific destruction.

Eisenhower proposed that the three nuclear powers of the time, Great Britain, the US and the USSR, give a portion of their stockpiles of fissionable materials to an international agency where scientists would study ways to use atomic energy for peaceful purposes. This would reduce the amount of material that could be used to produce weapons, serve as the basis for more significant future disarmament and create mutual trust between the two superpowers. But while several peaceful atomic programs were created following the initiative, the Soviets delayed their response and by the time the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was created in 1957, the nuclear arms race was already well underway.

Even though the Atoms for Peace initiative did not entirely fulfill its original purpose, the IAEA can serve as a useful model upon which to base a multilateral approach to managing the many uses of space. We hope that our efforts will eventually lead to the creation of an international regulatory body that has, like the IAEA, the authority to establish a set of rules, safeguards and means of verification to limit the dual uses of space technology.