AU.S. government task force has released its final report to the public recommending globalization of the U.S. military industry, even if it results in proliferation of conventional weapons. 
The Defense Science Board's (DSB) Task Force on Globalization and Security is a 27-member appointed board, composed mostly of Department of Defense (DoD) and private industry representatives.  The DSB encourages the Pentagon to facilitate transnational mergers of military corporations in order to avoid eventual conflicts with European countries over global arms market shares. 
Overall, the DSB task force advocates reducing DoD's role in controlling arms exports, and holds little or no confidence in multilateral arms control agreements.  The DSB recommends that the Pentagon automatically allow the export of military equipment, except when the U.S. is the sole possessor of the technology.  However, since current U.S. practice allows arms exporters to outsource high-tech weaponry abroad before it enters the U.S. arsenal, such Pentagon exceptions would probably be rare.  The task force recommends that the U.S. government stop worrying about protecting American military technologies since, in their judgment, most military technology will inevitably become available elsewhere in the future.
The Department of Defense (DoD), State Department and Congress lack consensus on these controversial issues.  The Pentagon has conducted a variety of studies on globalization and related export control issues, and the State Department, anxious not to let its authority over arms export controls be usurped, has done its own evaluations.
The DSB does acknowledge that its steps to maximize U.S. military capability may create tensions with other U.S. foreign policy objectives, particularly those achieved by limiting foreign access to U.S. military technology, products and services.  Yet the DSB feels that "military dominance," rather than the promotion of U.S. foreign policy objectives and security, is the DoD's "core responsibility."  The DSB considers U.S. State Department efforts to prevent or control conventional weapons proliferation as naive at best.  The DSB report describes international efforts to control conventional weapons proliferation, such as the Wassenaar Arrangement, as only "marginally successful."
A few large companies already dominate the American arms industry, and Europe's military firms are rapidly consolidating as well.  Germany's Daimler-Chrysler and France's Aero-spatiale announced a planned merger to form the European Aeronautics, Defense and Space Co. (EADS).  EADS and BAE Systems now monopolize the U.K. military industry.  Increased partnership between U.S. and EU military corporations is needed, DSB warns, to avoid a protectionist "Fortress America" from going to war with a hostile "Fortress Europe" over market share.
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) is concerned that transnational arms mergers would create very powerful military companies, further shifting control away from governments and toward private industry.  Transnational companies will be eager to market their arms to many different countries, and will adapt the lowest common standards for exporting arms to others nations.  With fewer controls and diffused production capabilities, conventional weapons will likely proliferate, posing long-term security risks around the world.  Globalizing the production of weapons is easy; globalizing responsibility for arms is a real challenge.

For more information: Tel.: 202-675-1018. Web site: <www.fas.org/asmp/campaigns/control.html>

Source: "Arms Company of the Future: BoeingBAELockheedEADS, Inc?," Arms Sales Monitor, January 2000.