Reforms in U.S. licensing process facilitate joint allied operations.

• Author: Kovac, Robert S.
• Position: Defense

The U.S. Department of State is responsible for regulating defense trade with the objective of ensuring the defense-trade support, national security and foreign-policy interests of the United States. The department's primary mission in this regard is to deny our adversaries access to U.S. defense technology while facilitating appropriate defense trade with our allies and coalition partners to allow for their legitimate self-defense needs and to fight effectively alongside U.S. forces and joint operations. We carry out our work under the authority of the Arms Export Control Act, the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations which includes the U.S. Munitions List (USML).

The USML covers items specifically designed for military applications in 21 categories, extending from firearms to the Joint Strike Fighter and just about everything in between. In recent years, U.S. exports have become increasingly complex, and there have been aggressive efforts to obtain U.S. technology. The increasing number and value of licenses reviewed by the Department are directly linked to the demands of conducting extensive joint operations and warfare with increasingly diverse partners.

In 2007, the State Department received approximately 81,000 license applications, valued at over $100 billion. The volume had been going up eight percent a year since 2000. As a global industrial base continues to emerge, licensing applications become more complex, particularly in the area of Technical Assistance Agreements (TAAs), which include the furnishing of assistance to foreign parties for the development and production of defense articles. Last year, more than 9,000 TAAs were received involving a total potential value of defense services estimated to be roughly equal to or greater than the value of hardware exports from the U.S. We refer nearly all of these agreements to the Department of Defense and its Defense Technology Security Administration for review to ensure that those activities are consistent with our national security and foreign policy interest. We have instituted a number of reforms and initiatives to improve the ability to manage this challenge in a way that protects the U.S. while ensuring that our allies have what they need to participate with us in military operations to protect our common interest. These initiatives include enhanced leadership and staffing of our defense trade operations, more robust enforcement activities, innovative new treaties with our closest allies and a number of business practice reforms. Many of the latter were formalized in Jan. 2008 directly by President George W. Bush. With continued cooperation from Congress and industry, we aim to introduce even greater reforms in the months ahead.

One of the greatest changes has been a difference in mindset. We have new leaders in key positions at the State Department to sharpen the focus on defense trade. Improving the administration...