by Neal Lane

About the author: Neal Lane, former assistant for science and technology to President Bill Clinton, is a university professor and senior fellow at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, in Houston, Texas.

A foreign graduate student at a major U.S. university developed a new hybrid rocket fuel. A U.S. company wanted to fund further testing, but insisted it could not even discuss it unless the university obtained an export license. Repeated in countless variations, this kind of episode crystallizes the conflict that the United States faces between two competing objectives: How to protect U.S. national security while deepening the cooperation with the international scientific community that is essential for both U.S. prosperity and security...