ABSTRACT
The essential peril of a strategic embargo that sought to comprehensively control technology over an indefinite period of time would be to become like the adversary against whom the embargo is directed. An apparatus for the strategic control of critical economic commodities fitted naturally into this wider and deeper fabric of state-centric containment: CoCom has been the tip of an iceberg of counter-intelligence security co-operation among North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) countries. The strictly consequential role of a strategic embargo in the case where the intentions of the adversary are ambivalent must be emphasised. A different kind of approach to a strategic embargo is adopted by Peter Wiles. Despite the transparent logic and well-tempered reason of Wilesian theory, seems to be concrete evidence that the essence of a strategic embargo against communism is to become like the adversary against whom the struggle is directed.
