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For decades, the American story of UFOs dominated the conversation. Roswell, Area 51, Project Blue Book and the Pentagon became central to the mystery. But UFO reports were never exclusively American. People have been reporting unusual objects in the skies all over the world. France developed one of the most organised approaches. In 1977, the French National Centre for Space Studies established GEIPAN, a government-supported organisation dedicated to collecting and investigating reports of unidentified aerial phenomena. Its approach was different from the secrecy that often surrounded American investigations. Reports were catalogued, investigated and made available to the public. Cases could be classified according to how well they had been identified. Some turned out to be ordinary objects such as aircraft, balloons or astronomical phenomena. Others remained unexplained. France did not solve the UFO mystery. But it demonstrated that the subject could be treated as a data problem rather than simply as a national-security issue. The Soviet Union had a very different experience. During the Cold War, an unexplained object in Soviet airspace could be interpreted as an American aircraft, a secret weapon or some form of military testing. The possibility of extraterrestrial visitors was not necessarily the first concern. The greater fear was technological. If an unknown object was operating near a sensitive military installation, officials wanted to know whether it belonged to an enemy. The Soviet military collected reports of unusual aerial phenomena, but much of the information remained classified. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, some of these reports became available to researchers. They revealed something interesting. Both sides of the Cold War had been looking at unusual objects in the sky. The Americans worried about Soviet technology. The Soviets worried about American technology. Each side sometimes feared that the other had developed something far beyond what was publicly known. In some cases, they may simply have been observing the same type of unknown from opposite sides of the political divide. South America offers another perspective. Countries such as Brazil, Chile and Peru have long histories of UFO reports. Chile established the Committee for the Study of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena, known as CEFAA, under the Chilean Air Force. Its work demonstrated that military organisations could investigate unusual reports without necessarily assuming an extraterrestrial explanation. Brazil also has an extensive history of UFO investigations. One of the best-known examples is the 1977 Colares incident, when residents of the Amazon region reported unusual lights and claimed that strange objects were affecting people. The Brazilian Air Force investigated the reports in what became known as Operation Saucer. The case remains controversial. Witnesses gave extraordinary accounts, while investigators attempted to determine what had actually occurred. The important point is that the Brazilian experience adds another layer to the global UFO story. The phenomenon is not confined to American culture. Britain has its own long history of UFO reports. The British Ministry of Defence maintained a UFO office for decades. Its primary concern was not proving or disproving extraterrestrial visitors. The practical question was whether reported objects represented a threat to British airspace. Eventually, many of the records were released to the National Archives. They contained thousands of reports. Some were easily explained. Others were unusual. A small number remained difficult to identify. The British files demonstrated something important. Governments can receive enormous numbers of reports without necessarily possessing the resources to investigate every one in detail. A report being stored in a government archive does not mean officials believed it represented an alien spacecraft. It means someone reported something unusual. That distinction is important when examining government UFO records. The global