enormous. As the dependency on space solar power increases in the long-term phase, insuring against sabotage is very important. Besides potential open military aggression against a space solar power program, there is also some possibility of political and economic sabotage against the program. Those oil powers, which have been enjoying profits through export of a limited energy source, will feel threatened should they lose their relative control over the global energy market. Especially if the space solar power satellite program is carried out by only industrialized nations, excluding those oil powers, even in the longterm phase, they might decide to impose an oil embargo to raise the price of this commodity in order to secure profits before space solar power becomes operational or commercial. This would induce another oil crisis. Another scenario is that oil powers may form a coalition with developing nations, which have always been making efforts to secure their potential benefits in space, to become active against the space solar power satellite program at an international forum. For example, at the level of United Nations conferences, those developing countries, through the present voting mechanism, can effectively stall the creation of a legal framework favoring space solar power satellites. Power balance between current oil powers and emerging energy powers should be considered along the progress of this program, and inclusion of developing nations in decision-making process at some stage can be crucial for the success of the project in a long time period. As for economic sabotage, there is also some possibility that some of the participating nations which have critical ground facilities, such as rectennas in their territories, might block access to those facilities. The possibility of such may increase if conflicts between the North and the South intensify. Although those advanced nations, which are likely to have good control over their own space facilities, can take effective counter-measures by stopping the power-beaming from space to those ground facilities. However, the potential problem remains. In addition to the dangers of potential terrorism and political and economic sabotage, there is also the inevitable danger of increasing interdependency among participants. Needless to say, a space solar power program optimally would not be operated by any one country. Problems surrounding the program in any given participating nation will affect all participants to a certain degree. All the nations involved in this program may suffer if some critical accident occurs in even only one of the participating nations. This becomes more realistic as the program develops in the long term phase, involving more nations and even more dependents on this source of energy. To avoid such a situation, one solution is to create spare systems in case of malfunctions, but this may be financially unacceptable. 5.4.3 Concluding Remarks Due to the collapse of the bipolar system and the emergence of a multi-polar system as well as a rough power balance between oil powers, developing nations and industrialized nations which are likely to be involved in the ISPO, there are various complicated issues related to national security and industrial competitiveness. Nevertheless, there are two major factors which can effectively control those issues. One is the inclusion of oil powers and developing countries in the decision-making process, at least in the later stages of the program. The other factor is making careful arrangements for technology transfer. While maximum attention should be paid to reduce threats to the industrial competitiveness of the providers of technology, there should also be much concern over the transfer of militarily applicable technologies. Tentative political solutions to control technology transfer would be to create the following two organizations. One is a watch-dog committee to assure fair commercial competition among the participants utilizing products of a space solar power program. Another possible organization is an IAEA-type committee to watch technology transfer to those countries which lack technological capability to participate in the research and development of the ISPO program. In the instance where new technologies are transferred under a limited use context, a nation should accept regular investigations by such committees to ensure its proper and limited use. Due to its unprecedented scale in the context of the new international political regime, the space solar power program, in the long-term, certainly creates formidable tasks to successfully manage potential security problems. It is very unlikely that any existing system for national security will successfully mange those problems, and some innovative initiatives may have to be taken in the future.
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