This is a broad-ranging study of U.S. strategic export control policy. In particular, this book analyzes and evaluates the effectiveness of export controls in delaying the acquisition of militarily sensitive high technology by the Soviet Union and its allied states. Furthermore, the question of whether or not U.S. economic competitiveness in various high-technology sectors has been unduly undermined by export controls is also evaluated. Numerous official government studies and reports, supplemented by a host of interviews with government officials, businesspeople, and analysts in the United States and Europe are utilized in drawing conclusions and posting policy recommendations. The consequences for export control policy of the revolutionary political upheavals in Eastern Europe and the former U.S.S.R. are also addressed. The study concludes that the strategic/security goal of utilizing controls to hinder and delay the acquisition of militarily significant high technology by the former Soviet Union and its allied states was generally effective. More controversially McDaniel argues that export controls per se have not been a significant determinant of lagging U.S. competitiveness in high technology. However, this conclusion is qualified by the observation that while overall trends in U.S. high-technology exports to important trading partners do not suggest that controls by themselves have unduly hurt U.S. exporters, individual sectors and small firms may be disadvantaged. Finally, the study cautions that U.S. policy must adapt or risk becoming outmoded and increasingly ineffective. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of international relations, international political economy, and international business.

This is Volume II of Professor Parker's authoritative Official History of Privatisation, covering the period from the re-election of Margaret Thatcher in 1987 to the election of Tony Blair in 1997. Volume II considers in detail several of the major privatisations, including those of airports, steel, water, electricity, coal and the railways, as well as a number of smaller ones. Each privatisation involved major challenges in terms of industrial restructuring, organising successful sales and, in a number of cases, establishing effective regulatory regimes. The policy evolved and new methods of selling and regulating were put in place that enabled further disposals to occur. Monolithic nationalised industries with their emphasis on the benefits of economies of scale, vertical integration and rationalisation, were replaced by industrial structures rooted in the importance of commercial management, risk taking and competition. In government departments and parts of the National Health Service, direct employees were replaced by private contractors, and private investment became a characteristic of public infrastructure in the form of PFI/PPP schemes. This study draws heavily on the official records of the British government, to which the author was given full access and on interviews with the leading figures involved in each of the privatisations, including ex-ministers, civil servants, business and City figures, as well as academics that have studied the subject. This book will of great interest to students of privatisation, British political history and of business and economics in general.

"Drawing on the records of the British Government, this first volume studies the background to privatisation and the privatisations that took place during the two Conservative Governments led by Margaret Thatcher, from 1979 to 1987"--Vol. 1.

Margaret Thatcher's government pledged in 1980 to give greater weight to political, industrial, and commercial considerations in aid allocation. The contributors to this volume, who include economists, political scientists, and practitioners working in the aid field, examine how this policy change came to be made, and what it has meant for the country's aid program and for Britain's relationship with the developing world. Distributed by St. Martin's. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

During the Iran-Iraq war, hundreds of merchant vessels were attacked, more than 400 seamen killed and millions of dollars' worth of damages were suffered by owners, charterers and insurers. In the most sustained assault on merchant shipping since the Second World War, the control of shipping routes, destruction of enemy and enemy-allied ships, and the protection of oil exports, were key objectives. These campaigns touched the economic and security interests of the Gulf states by threatening their exports and highlighting their political and military vulnerability. The ripples of the tanker wars extended well beyond the region with attacks on vessels with foreign flags which invoked international concern and drew in foreign naval forces.