The Tension Between Safeguarding National Security and the Drive to Develop Quantum Technology
By: Sarah Reutti
In 2018, President Trump signed into effect the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 (ECRA) as part of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019.[1] This Act put into place the statutory foundation for the U.S. government to regulate emerging technologies.[2] Among these identified technologies was quantum computing.[3]
ECRA authority allows the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) to enact strict licensing rules worldwide to keep sensitive quantum hardware out of the hands of our political adversaries.[4] However, many of these exporting limitations have negative implications on the scientific collaboration, mergers, acquisitions, and investments needed by the United States to develop the technology.[5] As it currently stands, the United States relies heavily on foreign expertise in quantum development due to the international nature of research in the field alongside a global shortage of quantum computing experts.[6] Even this limited foreign expertise is hard to come by as visa challenges complicate talent acquisition.[7]