The EU Dual-use Regulation, cyber-surveillance and human rights: the competing norms and organised hypocrisy of EU export controls

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the process and outcome of the review and recast of the EU Dual-use Regulation which concluded in 2020. The recast was dominated by conflicts both among EU member states and between the European Council, European Commission and European Parliament about the interlinked issues of expanding the range of human rights states should consider when implementing the Regulation and controlling exports of “cyber-surveillance items”. The processes through which states individually and collectively determine their content of their export controls are often portrayed as a zero-sum contest between “norms” and “interests”. This article argues that the recast can be better understood if it is viewed as a competition between different constitutive and regulative norms grounded in humanitarian, economic and national security concerns. The article also argues that the outcome of the recast can be better understood if we apply Brunsson’s concept of “organized hypocrisy” and view it as a set of compromises which sought to address several competing norms. The article concludes by reflecting on the potential wider application of the “competing norms” and “organized hypocrisy” frameworks for other studies of states’ export controls and export control regimes.

KEYWORDS:

• Dual-use goods
• export controls
• norms
• EU security policy
• organized hypocrisy
• cyber-surveillance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Except for Cyprus (which is not a member of the Wassenaar Arrangement) and Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania, Slovenia, and Slovakia (which are not members of the MTCR) all EU member states are members of all four export control regimes.

2. On efforts to break down the distinction between constructivist and rationalist approaches, see Farrell (2005).

3. EU Sanctions Map, www.sanctionsmap.eu/.

4. EU Sanctions Map, www.sanctionsmap.eu/.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mark Bromley

Mark Bromley is a Senior Researcher with the SIPRI Dual-Use and Arms Trade Control Programme and a Visiting Academic with the TC Beirne School of Law at the University of Queensland. Previously, he was a Policy Analyst for the British American Security Information Council (BASIC). His research focuses on national, regional and international efforts to regulate the trade in conventional arms and dual-use items. His recent publications include ‘Post-Shipment On-Site Inspections, Multilateral Steps for Debating and Enabling Their Adoption and Use’ (SIPRI, 2022, co-author) ‘Sweden’s arms export controls: Balancing support and restraint’ in Lustgarten, L. (ed.) ‘Law and the Arms Trade: Weapons, Blood and Rules’ (Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2020); Detecting, Investigating and Prosecuting Export Control Violations: European Perspectives on Key Challenges and Good Practices (SIPRI, 2019, co-author); and ‘Measuring illicit arms and financial flows: Improving the assessment of Sustainable Development Goal 16’, (SIPRI, 2019, co-author).