Wassenaar Arrangement

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

The Wassenaar Arrangement was established to "contribute to regional and international security and stability by promoting transparency and greater responsibility" among participating states, which coordinate their national policies to ensure certain technologies are not transferred or otherwise diverted to countries that undermine these goals. There are 42 participating states, including many former Comecon (Warsaw Pact) countries such as Russia. A secretariat for administering the agreement is based in Vienna, Austria.

The Wassenaar Arrangement is considerably less strict than CoCom, focusing primarily on the transparency of national export control regimes and not granting veto power to individual members over organizational decisions; like CoCom, it is not a treaty and therefore not legally binding. Every six months, member countries voluntarily exchange information on deliveries of conventional arms to non-Wassenaar members that fall under eight broad weapons 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 specific 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 industrial tools. It also needs to follow rules to stop the spread of dangerous weapons, like joining groups such as the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Missile Technology Control Regime, and the Australia Group. Countries must also follow important treaties like the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the Biological Weapons Convention, and the Chemical Weapons Convention, and have 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, rules were updated to control the export of certain technologies, including systems used for watching internet activity and special software that can break into computers. This change aimed to stop powerful countries from selling these tools to places where people’s rights might not be protected.

Some big tech companies, like Google and Facebook, worried that these rules might make it harder to find and fix problems in computer security. They believed 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 proposed changes to the Wassenaar Arrangement to control new technologies, but these proposals were not accepted by all members. For example, Spain placed 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 includes 42 states that work together to control the trade of weapons and technology. These countries aim to promote peace and security by making sure that certain weapons and technologies don’t end up in the wrong hands.

The participating countries are:

Some countries, like Chile, are working towards joining the Wassenaar Arrangement.

Control lists

Admission requirements

2013 amendments

"Wassenaar minus one"

Membership

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