Multilateral Export Controls And International Regime Theory

This dissertation provides an explanation for recent standardization and growth of international export control regimes. I argue that neoinstitutionalist organization theory contributes to an explanation of these organizations which coordinate efforts to limit the spread of weapons-related technologies. The neoinstitutionalist approach claims that organizational structures are often not selected for maximal effectiveness at tasks such as controlling weapons-related exports. Rather, they are selected for their fit with norms shared within communities of organizations that interact regularly or share common tasks. The dissertation adapts and applies this literature to the subject of export control cooperation through process-tracing case studies of export control regimes such as CoCom and the Wassenaar Arrangement. I argue that a transnational community of organizations, or organizational field, has developed in the issue area of nonproliferation export controls. While extant theories of International Relations help explain the origins of international export control cooperation, they do not explain the extent or form such efforts have taken today. Shared norms in this issue area and copying of organizations perceived as successful explain the growth and standardization of multilateral nonproliferation regimes and international export control practices. These factors are highlighted by the sociological theories I draw upon. The case studies are constructed from archival data, interviews with policy makers, trade literature, and secondary sources.

Like many cold war artifacts, the West's export control policies and institutions are being reevaluated after the tumult in the communist world at the end of the 1980s. Policymakers and scholars are being forced to reexamine the premises of export control policy and the very concept of export controls as a tool of national security and foreign policy. This volume brings together expert scholars and government officials who provide contrasting perspectives and address the prospects for export controls. The contributors discuss the role and function of export control policies from a variety of perspectives--security, commerce, diplomacy, the European region, and that of the newly industrialized countries. Among the topics covered are the problems the United States and the Western export regime will face in the 1990s in light of changing international political alliances and dependencies, in defining strategic exports, in enforcing export controls, and the role of the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls. Contributors. Sumner Benson, Beverly Crawford, Richard t. Cupitt, Dorinda G. Dallmeyer, Paul Freedenberg, Martin J. Hillenbrand, Hanns-Dieter Jacobsen, Bruce W. Jentleson, Kevin J. Lasher, William J. Long, Janne Haaland Matlary, Jere W. Morehead, Henry R. Nau, Han S. Park, Kevin F. F. Quigley, Alen B. Sherr, Christine Westbrook

The editors of this book have gathered writings from various contributors who discuss American and Japanese views of nonproliferation export controls. Readers will see the U.S.'s perspective and the Japanese perspective on controlling the export of dual-use items for military security reasons and trading these items for economic benefits. The book provides an analysis of issues ranging from technology control to democratization to the different interests and preferences of policy-makers. It also examines the possibility of a multilateral export control arrangement through the cooperation of Japan and the U.S. This examination includes identifying policy implication, opportunities, risks and constraints that influence and create an agenda for future nonproliferation export control research between Japan and the U.S. This book will enlighten readers to the potential of a balanced and durable global partnership. The book will make a significant contribution to the on-going discussion on the development of export controls in the post-Cold War era. It will appeal to students and teachers of foreign policy, international relations, comparative foreign policy, comparative political economy and Japanese area studies. It will also interest the policy-making community.

Protecting U.S. security by controlling technology export has long been a major issue. But the threat of the Soviet sphere is rapidly being superseded by state-sponsored terrorism; nuclear, chemical, biological, and missile proliferation; and other critical security factors. This volume provides a policy outline and specific steps for an urgently needed revamping of U.S. and multilateral export controls. It presents the latest information on these and many other pressing issues: The successes and failures of U.S. export controls, including a look at U.S. laws, regulations, and export licensing; U.S. participation in international agencies; and the role of industry. The effects of export controls on industry. The growing threat of "proliferation" technologies. World events make this volume indispensable to policymakers, government security agencies, technology exporters, and faculty and students of international affairs.

The multilateral export control regimes are informal groups of states that coordinate their participants’ controls on exports of proliferation-relevant goods, technologies and military items. The regimes are grappling with significant challenges that affect their ability to fulfil their key functions. This report outlines common challenges faced by the regimes and different formats that participating states can use for engaging in dialogue and coordinating regime controls. It outlines obstacles as well as identifies the lessons learned from recent inter-regime activities. It makes the case for using more formalized inter-regime dialogue meetings, particularly to address the difficulties in controlling emerging technologies with cross-regime relevance and coordinating the production of guidance materials.

This article identifies a current disharmony arising from increased expectations for the effectiveness and scope of the multilateral non-proliferation export control regime system, coupled with the reality of regime structures the inherent institutional limitations of which form significant barriers to meeting these expectations. The article will propose that, through employing international legal and organisational theory, this disharmony can be substantially mediated, and that the expectations of the multilateral non-proliferation community can be essentially met through efforts of reform and restructuring of the multilateral export control regimes. These efforts, while endowing the regimes with the increased formality necessary for higher levels of effectiveness, at the same time do not present the serious challenges to notions of state sovereignty that have contributed to the current unwillingness of regime members to institute programmes of reform within the regimes.