Malaysia’s path to the Strategic Trade Act

Abstract

ABSTRACT In 2010, six years after news broke that the A. Q. Khan nuclear smuggling ring was making components for Libya’s nuclear program a short distance from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia adopted comprehensive export controls. Because Malaysia, like many developing and middle-income countries, had little to gain in security terms from such controls and potentially much to lose economically, its decision to introduce them seems puzzling. Drawing on a series of interviews with Malaysian officials and civil society, this article contributes to a growing literature on states’ nonproliferation policies by exploring that puzzle. The article considers the existing literature that purports to explain why states impose export controls and identifies three plausible factors behind Malaysia’s decision to do so: international norms, side payments, and political leadership. The article then details Kuala Lumpur’s development of export controls and assesses the role of each factor. Consistent with recent studies of the international nonproliferation order, the article concludes that Malaysia’s decision to introduce export controls was driven mainly by the promise of political and economic side payments from external actors, especially the United States, and by domestic changes in political leadership.