Export Controls and Technology Transfers: Turning Obstacles Into Opportunities

What follows in these pages is the record of practical people attempting to find practical solutions to sensitive problems. The problems are not exactly new ones, but rather old problems in a new context. And the solutions to them rest not only on business and regulators displaying common sense, but also on governments getting the larger strategic picture right.For proof of practicality, the reader is advised to turn to page 22, where he or she will find twenty-six proposals, spread over nineteen pages, for improving and streamlining the export control system for defense-related technology. They range from “rewrite ITAR in simplerlanguage” to “create a new or semi-independent agency under an ‘export-control czar.’” Their adoption would materially improve the export control process.