ABSTRACT

The contributors to this volume have detailed the magnitude and complexity of current export control problems in the former Soviet Union and have identified the initial steps taken to confront the challenge. Ironically, given the West's prompting to encourage the growth of a free enterprise system in the NIS, the movement in that direction has in some respects aggravated the export control situation. The erosion of effective state controls over the export of sensitive defense commodities and the rise of private entrepreneurs eager to exploit a chaotic and “wild East” marketplace have combined to raise the stakes and the difficulties of nonproliferation export regulations. Although the lack of connectivity to date between suppliers and would-be end users of WMD technology and components has limited the number of confirmed proliferation-significant exports of contraband, there is little reason to believe that this luck will continue indefinitely. 1