IP and Military Procurement

In my latest at WPR, I take an all too brief look at military procurement and intellectual property:

The IP dynamics of military equipment are complicated, and two alternative systems of managing IP issues in military procurement have emerged. The first, adopted by the United States and its allies, relies on robust IP protection for producers at every step of the ladder... The other system, more traditional in some ways, disregards the value of protecting intellectual property in military acquisition. In this system, which can be thought of as the "anything goes" system of IP management, states beg, borrow, and steal whatever technology they can, often attempting to copy or reverse-engineer systems developed in other countries.

As I say, this is a brief and introductory foray into the question. The politics of IP in defense procurement in the US are extremely complicated, as is the legal structure that governs relations with US allies. Nevertheless, I believe that paying closer attention to the IP aspects of military procurement is going to become both rewarding and necessary.