Wassenaar Arrangement — Safekipedia Adventurer

The Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies, also known as the Wassenaar Arrangement, is a multilateral export control regime. It helps control the international transfer of conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies. It was created on 12 July 1996 in Wassenaar, Netherlands. It replaced the Cold War–era Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (CoCom). CoCom had restricted certain goods to the Eastern Bloc.

The Wassenaar Arrangement was made to help regional and international security and stability. It encourages transparency and responsibility among participating states. These states work together to make sure certain technologies don’t go to countries that might misuse them. There are 42 participating states. This includes many former Comecon (Warsaw Pact) countries such as Russia. The secretariat that manages the agreement is based in Vienna, Austria.

The Wassenaar Arrangement is less strict than CoCom. It focuses on the transparency of national export control regimes. It does not give veto power to individual members over decisions. Like CoCom, it is not a treaty and so it is not legally binding. Every six months, member countries share information about deliveries of conventional arms to non-Wassenaar members. These arms fall into eight broad categories: battle tanks, armoured fighting vehicles, large-calibre artillery, military aircraft, military helicopters, warships, missiles or missile systems, and small arms and light weapons.

Control lists

The Wassenaar Arrangement has special lists to control the export of certain technologies and goods. These lists are split into two main parts: the "List of Dual-Use Goods and Technologies" (called the Basic List) and the "Munitions List".

The Basic List includes ten categories, such as special materials, electronics, computers, and aerospace technology. Each category has different types of items, like physical goods, production equipment, materials, software, and technology. The Munitions List has 22 categories that are not labeled. These lists help make sure that important technologies don’t end up in the wrong hands.

Main article: List of restricted technologies

Admission requirements

To join the Wassenaar Arrangement, a country must make and sell arms or special tools used in factories. It also needs to follow rules to stop dangerous weapons from spreading. This means joining groups like the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Missile Technology Control Regime, and the Australia Group. Countries must also follow important treaties such as the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the Biological Weapons Convention, and the Chemical Weapons Convention. They need strong rules to control what they sell to other countries.

Any country in the world can join if it meets these rules, but all current members must agree. In 2017, India became the 42nd country to join after getting support from many big countries.

2013 amendments

In December 2013, the rules were changed. The new rules helped control some special technologies. These included tools for watching internet activity and software that could break into computers. The change wanted to stop powerful countries from selling these tools to places where people’s rights might not be safe.

Some big tech companies, like Google and Facebook, had concerns. They worried the rules might make it harder to find and fix problems in computer security. They thought the rules could make everyone less safe and might not stop bad actors outside the group of countries that agreed to the rules.

"Wassenaar minus one"

In 2022 and 2023, some countries wanted to change the Wassenaar Arrangement to control new technologies. But not all members agreed. For example, Spain wanted to place restrictions on advanced quantum computers, the Netherlands focused on equipment for making tiny semiconductors, and the US restricted certain AI chips and lasers.

Because the proposals were not agreed upon, several countries decided to create their own rules instead. By mid-2024, countries like the UK and Canada began applying their own export controls on these advanced technologies. Over time, many other advanced economies also updated their rules, leading to more unified controls by late 2024 and 2025.

Membership

The Wassenaar Arrangement has 42 countries that work together. They want to keep peace and safety by controlling the trade of weapons and technology. They make sure these items don’t go to the wrong people.

The countries are:

Some countries, like Chile, are trying to join the Wassenaar Arrangement.