ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the question of whether there is still a legitimate need for export controls on strategic commodities. It examines the traditional arguments in favor of those controls will be placed within the wider perspective of the impact of Gorbachev's new thinking on Western security. The chapter suggests that an appropriate export control regime. It argues that domestic instability in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe is more of a threat to European and Western interests than the possibility of military aggression. Perhaps on the contrary; domestic instability represents a main source of insecurity inasmuch as it may cause political crises that spin out of control and escalate to war. An adequate control regime on the export of strategic trade is still required, but this regime should be based on a new concept of security.
