The Importance and Challenge
of Addressing Technology Diversion

A 2022 joint investigation by Reuters and the British think tank, Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), determined that 318 of the 450 components identified in Russian military systems used in Ukraine were made by US companies. Other components in the system came from companies headquartered in Austria, China, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the UK.

In a report released in February 2024, the UK-based investigative organization Conflict Armament Research identified more than 290 components inside a North Korean ballistic missile, based on analysis of one of these missiles recovered in Ukraine. Over 75 percent of these components were manufactured by US companies, with the remainder by companies headquartered in China, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan.

In December 2023, the US Treasury Department sanctioned 10 entities and four individuals across Asia and the Middle East for procuring hundreds of thousands of dollars in US technology for the Iranian military's drone program, despite existing sanctions regimes.

Clearly, illicit procurement of US technology remains an enduring problem, despite decades of treaties, laws, and the robust due diligence programs of many manufacturers. In the process, procurement agents subvert legitimate use, tarnish manufacturers’ reputations, exacerbate instability, and prolong global conflict. Preventing diversion and misuse, however, requires knowledge not only of science and industry, but myriad other incredibly diverse issues, from trade, finance, and law, to geopolitics, language, culture. Our company illuminates these issues for government agencies, industry, nonprofits, and all those who wish to ensure US technology contributes to a universally secure and prosperous world.