The Future of Export Controls: Developing New Strategies for Nonproliferation

Abstract

Export controls remain an important instrument to international nonproliferation efforts in that they raise the cost of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) acquisition and development, buy time, and deny known and potential proliferant actors easy access to items and technologies that are either indispensable to WMD development or can make critical differences in existing arsenals. However, making export controls effective requires strengthening both multilateral export control regimes and national export control systems; shifting away from only focusing on selected items/technologies to greater attention to potential destabilizing military applications in prospective end-user(s)/end-use; and, better and more regular intelligence and information sharing. Export controls based on the mission/mandates of existing international nonproliferation regimes such as the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) will have greater legitimacy and therefore relatively more ready acceptance among exporters and importers alike.