Western efforts to control trade and technological relations with communist countries affect many interests and political groups in both Eastern and Western blocs. Although there is general agreement within the Western alliance that government-imposed controls are necessary to prevent material having military importance from falling in the hands of the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies, there is considerable controversy over the specifics: the exact definition of "militarily significant" material, how the Western nations should administer controls, the implications of glasnost, and other matters.

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