Tilting at Windmills? The Counterposing Policy Interests Driving the U.S. Commercial Satellite Export Control Reform Debate

Abstract

United States strategic export controls — which treat commercial satellite technologies, related technical data, and defense services as munitions subject to the strictest export control criteria — have been under fire for decades. Critics argue that in attempting to bolster national security by limiting the transfer of space technologies to adversaries and potential adversaries, the U.S. has unintentionally and paradoxically harmed national security by undermining the space industrial base, the academic and research institutions that feed and grow that base, and the international partnerships that drive scientific and technological advancement. There are few, if any, unequivocal supporters of the U.S. export control regime as it stands. As a result, both regulatory and statutory reform initiatives are afoot. Yet this begs the question: if the problems are and have been so apparent, why have the regulations and concomitant organic legislation not been subject to reform before now? This thesis will deconstruct the current discourse (keeping in mind its historical underpinnings) and challenge the orthodoxies of the export control reform debate in order to determine, to the extent possible, the merits of individual arguments and claims.

Keywords: export controls, ITAR, commercial satellites, space