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Dual-Use Technologies and Export Administration in the Post-Cold War Era: Documents from a Joint Program of the National Academy of Sciences and the Russian Academy of Sciences
It follows then that while considering new scientific and technical achievements from the standpoint of their undesirable use by potential aggressors for the purpose of creating high-precision weapons, a coordinated evaluation of the threshold significance of the main scientific and technical parameters is needed. It is time to begin this work at the international level, to compare the methods and initial data possessed by the specialists of our countries, and to coordinate the results of these evaluations. This can also be tied to the process of deciding which weapons to sell to the Third World countries.
However, I do not think it is possible to stop completely the spread of technologies that can be used for developing high-precision weapons. There are too many areas of their application and they are just too valuable to economic growth.
Therefore, countries concerned about international security should start working ahead of time on the creation of technical means and application methods that would allow them to neutralize the high-precision weapons of aggressors or at least sharply diminish the weapons' effectiveness. Without going into detail about what the United States did in destroying Iraqi air defenses, which were armed with high-precision antiaircraft guided missiles, we should point out the very fact of the successful resolution of this problem.
Therefore, if highly developed peaceful countries are successful in creating technical means capable of neutralizing high-precision weapons of potential aggressors, the necessity of including components of these high-precision weapons and related technologies on restricted lists will become less critical. After all, in the final analysis we are interested in the widespread use of useful technologies.
These facts lead to one more area of collaboration between American and Russian specialists. The various types of research that I mentioned are probably as important as the development of new technologies. Therefore, I propose to note this area of collaboration in the final document and to provide material support for it.
