In the post Cold War era inreasing international economic competition has redefined the context for espionage as nations link their national security to their economic security. Proprietary economic information meant to be secret is stolen with losses estimated anywhere between $24 and 100 bilion. In this climate of distrust, itelligence services are expanding from their primary focus on military secrets to collecting economic secrets, i.e., to conducting economic espionage. Since cessation of the Cold War, the most virulent offenders have been former military allies of the United States.

Economic espionage poses a real threat to America's economic future, yet outside of the intelligence community, few know about it. The author attempts to close this information gap by defining economic espionage, and by discussing the methods used to obtain trade secrets from U.S. corporations. He also provides an overview of legislation used in fighting economic espionage and the impact ofthe Economic Espionage Act of 1996, wich is aimed at strengthening efforts at preventing it

public administration review par

july/august 1997 volume 57 numero 4