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The production of hazardous materials that can be used for civilian and military purposes (dual-use items) has led the U.S. government to impose export controls in order to prevent the proliferation of risky materials falling into the wrong hands -- a concern in this age of international terrorism. Export controls are prudent government responses to the emergence of a new and widely perceived threat to national security. However, existing controls have failed to keep up with rapid global economic and technological changes, and are likely to have adverse effects on firms' economic performance. This article suggests regulatory and policy reforms, as well as corporate strategies for dealing with U.S. export controls in order to make such controls effective and relevant to changing technological developments. Among the problems the article identifies are the negative effects of these export controls on firm innovation, market competitiveness, investment, and trade flows. These issues point to a pressing agenda for regulatory reform. Reforms can focus on limiting control lists, enhancing the bilateral or multilateral cooperation in export controls, improving the efficiency and transparency of the licensing system, improving resources and the outreach to small and medium-size exporters, and compensation for the loss of market share. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai-an attack which had been amply foreshadowed by intelligence and previous, similar strikes-India's government promised unprecedented reforms to the nation's internal security architecture. Five years after Mumbai however, these reforms have almost completely failed to bear fruit. This article reviews both the reasons that the Mumbai attacks had such an impact within India's politics and also why the promised reforms were never able to take shape. It argues that the high-profile nature of the Mumbai attacks, and their effect on India's economic elite, forced the central government to respond. But India's states are so adamantly opposed to the loss of autonomy, particularly over their police forces, that substantive security reform would entail. Thus the prospects for effective reform in the foreseeable future are dim. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article analyzes the latest trends in India-Pakistan relations. It begins by justifying the assumption of one coherent Indian strategy towards Pakistan and, while focusing on the debate in India, argues that this strategy can best be described as one of "hedging." It then analyzes three sources of cooperation and six sources of competition—including one in Afghanistan. Next it argues that India should preferably follow an engagement strategy instead of its current hedging or the alternative containment strategies. At the same time, it acknowledges that an engagement strategy is unlikely, while there are recurrent terrorist attacks in India, especially those that have their roots in Pakistan. In the penultimate section, it examines the sort of political decisions that are needed in following this engagement strategy that should, ideally, lead toward a normalization of relations. However it concludes with the assessment that, despite the erratic composite dialogue, "ugly stability" continues to characterize the bilateral relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of US foreign assistance has shifted in the wake of 2001, and Washington has resurrected practices previously associated with police aid during the Cold War. In particular, the Bush administration has broadened the remit of the United States Agency for International Development (usaid) in such a way as to make it a quasi-security agency. The consequences of this could be significant for both usaid and democratic-style police assistance programmes more generally, for today's threat-driven policies are part of a trend which in the past has had worrying consequences. Using the critical variable of public policing (which is illustrated by reference to developments in Kenya), I argue that using usaid to improve the counter-terrorist capacity of Africa's police in the pursuit of US national security objectives is a seriously flawed strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the response of Japan to U.S. security policies. Key markers of progress toward the U.S.-Japan alliance; Obstacles to the reorientation of Japan's national security priorities; Background on Japan's political system; Contribution of Japan to the U.S.-led war against terrorism.