National Security Implications Of Export Controls

The Impact of U.S. Export Controls on National Security, Science and Technological Leadership

United States Code

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Export controls more thorough analysis needed to justify changes in high performance computer controls.

In January 2002, the President announced that the control threshold above which computers exported to countries such as China, India, and Russia would increase from 85,000 MTOPS to 190,000 MTOPS. When the President changes the threshold, the National Defense Authorization Act of 1998 requires that the President provide a justification to Congress. The justification should, at a minimum, address the extent to which computers capable of performance between the established and newly proposed level of performance are available from other countries, address all their potential military uses, and assess the impact of such uses on U.S. national security interests. A related law also requires that we assess the executive branch's proposed changes. The justification for the President's January 2002 change to the control threshold for high performance computers was presented in a December 28, 2001, report to Congress. Thus, we (1) assessed the President's justification for the decision as presented in the December 2001 report and (2) identified other issues relevant to the decision to change the control threshold. To address these issues, we reviewed the statutory requirements for the justification, the documentation used by executive branch officials to support the conclusions presented in the report, and export control regulations pertaining to high performance computers. In addition, we obtained information from the 10 manufacturers listed in the President's report on the availability of high performance computers having the specifications described in the report. The information obtained from the manufacturers was supplemented with additional information obtained from a leading information technology industry market research organization. We also interviewed officials from the Departments of Commerce, Defense, and State who were responsible for producing the President's report.