IP: Remember ITAR?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 20:15:45 -0500
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> From: "David P. Reed" <dpreed () reed com>
> Subject: Remember ITAR?
>
> The following lecture is likely to be very important, especially because 
> it recognizes the potential for a new wave of repression masquerading as 
> national security.
>
> Those of us who remember trying to put end-to-end encryption and 
> authentication in TCP, and the RSA and Diffie-Hellman public-key research, 
> remember ITAR, if not fondly, at least vividly.  Largely because of flawed 
> thinking on the part of "export control" policymakers, technologies that 
> could have protected our entire commercial infrastructure from information 
> warfare and terrorism were inhibited from wide and standard use.
>
> If indeed a return to a much expanded ITAR structure is beginning to be 
> floated as a way to achieve national security, my country has a problem - 
> a very large one.  One of perspective about the costs of damaging the 
> essential nature of our knowledge generating enterprise.  And at the same 
> time, risking a change from a resilient society to a fragile one based on 
> an extremely brittle defense strategy founded on a false premise - that 
> ideas and science can be blocked at borders.
>
> A strong patriotism calls for fighting against this attempt to point the 
> barrel of a military musket against our own temples of knowledge and 
> creativity.   Our society's brains are not a cancer to be contained and 
> shut away incommunicado in a dungeon.
>
> Though many US computer researchers owe much to ARPA funding, this is not 
> the time to worry about whether you might be biting the hand that feeds 
> you by pointing out the folly of expanding ITAR.  It's time to stand up 
> and make it clear that, as Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who earned the US 
> Intelligence Medal, is noted to have said: "Secrecy is for losers".
>
> - David
>
>
> > Subject: Lewis M. Branscomb Lecture Series, December 17, 2001, "Research 
> > Values and
> >  National Security: Can Traditional Values Survive?"
> > To: HIIP () harvard edu
> > X-Mailer: Lotus Notes Release 5.0.4  June 8, 2000
> > From: HIIP () harvard edu
> > Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 17:20:19 -0500
> > X-MIMETrack: Serialize by Router on KSGMTA/KSG(Release 5.0.3 |March 21, 
> > 2000) at 11/26/2001
> >  05:25:19 PM
> > X-RCPT-TO: <dpreed () reed com>
> >
> > The Harvard Information Infrastructure Project
> > and
> > Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program
> > present the
> >
> > Lewis M. Branscomb Lecture Series
> >
> > We invite you to participate
> >
> > with
> >
> > Dr. Eugene B. Skolnikoff
> >
> > Professor of Political Science Emeritus
> > Massachusetts Institute of Technology
> > on
> >
> > "Research Universities and National Security:
> > Can Traditional Values Survive?"
> >
> > Monday, December 17, 2001, 3:30-5:00 p.m.
> > 5th floor, Taubman Building
> > John F. Kennedy School of Government
> >
> > Reception to follow
> >
> > Please respond by December 10 to:
> > Ms. Kimberley Ednie
> > tel.  617-496-5584
> > email kimberley_ednie () ksg harvard edu
> >
> > The nature of the national security challenges to the nation
> > have changed from the time of the Cold War, with much
> > greater attention to the danger of proliferation of military
> > capabilities to a wide range of states and non-state actors.
> > This has led to more restrictive implementation of export
> > control regulations by the federal government, focused in
> > particular on space science and space technologies. This
> > preceded September 11, but now is likely to become a more
> > prominent issue. The most significant problems to date arise
> > in the application of the International Traffic in Arms
> > Regulations (ITAR) to the space sciences in the universities
> > and industry. The effects have seriously disrupted the
> > normal working practices of many of the scientists involved
> > and have raised questions about international cooperation,
> > openness of information, relations with foreign graduate
> > students, and working patterns with industry.
> >
> > A discussion of some of the basic characteristics of
> > technology, of how the scientific enterprise in the US has
> > changed, and of how the research universities have evolved
> > in recent years will give a framework to anticipate how the
> > ITAR and other security issues may unfold in the near
> > future. Many other fields of science and technology may well
> > become subject to export controls, since the ITAR gives
> > license, if agencies choose to use it, to control any
> > subject with possible military application. This could have
> > profound implications for the research universities,
> > affecting faculty, foreign students, and foreign postdocs,
> > and international relationships generally in research. Some
> > concerted action on the part of the universities is clearly
> > necessary to suggest what restrictions may be appropriate
> > and what are not, in the face of what is a legitimate danger
> > to the nation.
> >
> > Dr. Eugene Skolnikoff has focused his research and teaching
> > interests in the fields of science policy and international
> > affairs, with a strong emphasis on the political changes
> > brought about by rapid scientific and technological change.
> > He was on the White House Staff in the office of the Science
> > Adviser in the administrations of Eisenhower, Kennedy (1958-
> > 63) and Carter (1977-81), and has been a consultant to
> > various government agencies, including the Departments of
> > State, Energy and Defense, the National Science Foundation,
> > and Congress' Office of Technology Assessment, as well as to
> > international organizations, private foundations, and
> > industry.  Dr. Skolnikoff is currently on several National
> > Research Council committees and is presently Chair of the
> > Board of the UN University Institute for New Technology
> > (INTECH) in Maastricht, Holland.  He was also a member of
> > the Board of Trustees of the German Marshall Fund of the
> > United States, an American foundation, from 1979-87, serving
> > as Chair from 1980-86.  He has been decorated by the German
> > and Japanese Governments and is a Fellow of the American
> > Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Association
> > for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Skolnikoff has published
> > numerous articles and several books, including particularly,
> > The Elusive Transformation: Science, Technology, and the Evolution
> > of International Politics (Princeton University Press, 1993).


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