Technology and the Tyranny of Export Controls: Whisper Who Dares

214 Pages·1990·45.133 MB·English

by  Stuart Macdonald (auth.)

TECHNOLOGY AND THE TYRANNY OF EXPORT
CONTROLS
Whisper Who Dares
Also by Stuart Macdonald
REVOLUTION IN MINIATURE: The History and Impact of
Semiconductor Electronics (with Ernst Braun)
THE TROUBLE WITH TECHNOLOGY (edited with Tom Mandeville
and Don Lamberton)
Technology and the
Tyranny of Export
Controls
Whisper Who Dares
Stuart Macdonald
Reader in Economics, University of Queensland, Brisbane
and Research Fellow, the City University, Londnn
Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN 978-1-349-10901-2 ISBN 978-1-349-10899-2 (eBook)
DOl 10.1007/978-1-349-10899-2
© Stuart Macdonald, 1990
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1990 978-0-333-49374-8
All rights reserved. For information, write:
Scholarly and Reference Division,
St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue,
New York, N.Y. 10010
Frrst published in the United States of America in 1990
ISBN 978-0-312-04085-7
library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Macdonald, Stuart, 1946-
Technology and the tyranny of export controls: whisper who dares
/Stuart Macdonald.
p. em.
ISBN 978-0-312-04085-7
I. High technology industries-United States. 2. High technology
industries. 3. Export controls. 4. Technology transfer.
I. Title.
HCI IO.H53M33 1990
382' .4562--<lc20 89-29463
CIP
For Noel
who knows,
who knows what she wants,
who wants to be wise

Contents
List of Figures IX
List of Tables
X
Acknowledgements XI
1 Overview 1
PART ONE CAUSE
2 The Development of Export Controls 9
Two systems - perhaps three 9
The development of CoCom 11
The development of US export controls 18
3 Derring-do and Petty Politics 30
The fascination of export controls 30
The plot thins 37
The Toshiba affair 39
Petty politics 43
4 High Technology and Information 54
High technology policy 54
Characteristics of high technology 56
Information in high technology 58
5 Information and US Export Controls 64
The Bucy report and information 64
Controlling information 65
Problems in implementation 67
Control of information within the United States 70
Extension of controls 73
Implications for industrial innovation 76
US controls on information overseas 78
Success in failure 82
VII
viii Contents
PART TWO CONSEQUENCE
6 The Impact of Export Controls on the United 91
States
Primitive logic 91
The Defense Perspective 92
Balancing the National Interest 95
Screening 106
US competitiveness in high technology 111
7 The Impact of Export Controls on the Allies 117
Suspicions 117
The official stance 117
Troubled firms 120
Compliance 128
Counting the cost 146
8 Controlling the World 155
Negotiating with friends 155
Co Com 158
The example of Australia 160
China 163
9 The Impact of Export Controls on the Soviet Bloc 167
The perceived threat 167
Soviet bloc technology 168
Technology transfer to the Soviet bloc 171
Soviet acquisition programmes 176
Export controls appropriate to the Soviet bloc 184
10 Who Wins? 193
The problem 193
The obvious solution 195
Less obvious obstacles 196
Pressure for change 199
Index 203
List of Figures
2.1 Sample page of British version of the CoCom 14
International List
2.2 Proposed organisation of CoCom Secretariat, 1983 16
3.1 Administrative responsibilities for export controls, 37
Department of Defense, 31 December 1984
3.2 Relative US/USSR technology level in deployed 49
military systems, 1985
5.1 Definition of technical data in US Export 79
Administration Regulations
6.1 Sample page of List of Denials 104
6.2 Compliance leaflet for Varian employees 107
7.1 Letter from Margaret Thatcher to Paddy Ashdown, 121
11 August 1988
7.2 Letter from Margaret Thatcher to Paddy Ashdown, 124-5
11 November 1988
7.3 Letter from IBM (UK) to leasing agents in UK, 130-1
22 December 1983
7.4 Letter from Texas Instruments Limited to UK 132
customers, May 1984
7.5 First and last pages of a telex from US Department of 135
Justice organising the arrest of Brian Butcher in Italy
7.6 US Department of Commerce Red Flag checklist 138
7.7 Export control assurance required from UK 139
customers by Control Data Limited
7.8 Export control assurance required from UK 140-1
customers by Texas Instruments Limited
7.9 Control Data checklist used in UK 144
7.10 Charges levelled by US Department of Commerce 147
at Systime in the UK
9.1 The US-USSR technology gap, 1985 170
9.2 Soviet technology acquisition programmes and 178
weapons development
9.3 VPK technology requirements satisfied, 1976-80 179
9.4 US universities targeted in Soviet acquisition 182
programme
9.5 Soviet military research projects benefiting from 185
Western technology, early 1980s
IX