Akin Int’l Trade Partner Kevin Wolf Featured in Video Interview by Foreign Policy

For its “Semiconductors and the Global Race to Innovate” FP Tech Forum, held concurrently with the United Nations General Assembly meeting, Foreign Policy interviewed Akin international trade partner Kevin Wolf.

Kevin traced the history of export controls and national security, beginning with the Cold War and its emphasis on the Soviet Union and East Bloc, on to nonproliferation in the ‘90s and concerns over weapons of mass destruction. He said that, with China particularly, the issue of what “national security” means has expanded, and he brought the themes of national and economic security, tied to control of the export of high-technology inputs, specifically semiconductors, down to the present day.

He said, “Where we’re at is really a foundational shift in what constitutes national security.” He noted that, historically, when a country goes it alone and imposes export controls, “inevitably they become ineffective, inevitably they become counterproductive, inevitably whoever you’re trying to keep something from figures out another way to get it.”

Kevin said, “The old alliances with respect to export controls are based on a classical post-Cold War, nonproliferation way of thinking about the role of controls. And the thing that I advocate is, in order to make this new vision of national security…fundamentally with respect to China and Russia…is there must be a new way of thinking about the purpose of export controls that is plurilateral—a smaller group of close allies with common values with respect to common security threats that see things more broadly than has traditionally been the case and also factor in human rights objectives, which don’t now exist with respect to any of the multilateral regimes.”

To watch the full interview, click here.