Clash of ideas: export controls: a contentious issue reaching a 'boiling point'.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: IN FOCUS: DEFENSE AND TECHNOLOGY NEWS

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Stringent U.S. controls on exports of military technology may help keep advanced weapons out of enemy hands, but they also are making it tougher for the United States to get the best available weapons for its armed forces, say government and industry experts.

The Bush administration in recent years has tightened restrictions on sales of U.S. technology to foreign buyers. At the same time, it has heeded industry complaints about the burdensome process of obtaining export licenses by adding more staff to the State and Defense Department offices in charge of handling the applications.

None of these changes, however, acknowledges the realities of the world today--where technology flows freely across national borders and the United States depends on foreign technology to secure its military edge, says a new study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The report, titled, "Toward a U.S. Export Control and Technology Transfer System for the 21st Century," argues that U.S. policies fail to recognize the power of globalization and the declining competitiveness of U.S. industry.

Defense industry analyst Pierre Chao, who chaired the study, says the issue of export control reforms has reached a "boiling point," with frustrations running high on both sides of the debate.

Back in the 1990s, a push for export control reforms was based on economic arguments--U.S. industry depends on foreign sales for its profitability--but that rationale no longer became acceptable after 9/11. "We have found very little sympathy for pure economic arguments about this topic and much more resonance with the national security implications," says Chao in a presentation to a CSIS conference.

The latest wave of calls for reform presents a broader rationale that is based both on economic and national security needs. "At last count, there was something on the order of 18 export control reform studies, efforts, commissions underway," he says.

Restrictive policies are impeding the flow of key technologies that the U.S. military needs, Chao says. "While we sit here and try to prevent technologies from going out, I think we have got to be very careful that you don't prevent the raw technologies from coming in."

He notes that many of the greatest achievements in U.S. weaponry were made possible by foreign technologies, "whether that is nuclear weapons thanks to German Jewish scientists, whether it is space, thanks to German scientists ... whether...