Steve Cohen: “when France, Germany, Japan, and South Korea are included in a list of nations, we automatically assume that this must…”

“when France, Germany, Japan, and South Korea are included in a list of nations, we automatically assume that this must be a list of America's allies--our military and political partners since the end of the Second World War. Unfortunately, this is not only a list of America's trustworthy friends, it is also a list of governments that have systematically practiced economic espionage against American companies in the past--and continue to do so to this day. The term ``espionage'' evokes images of the cloak-and-dagger side of the United States-Soviet confrontation in the cold war. Since the end of the East-West struggle, however, an equally damaging and pervasive form of spying has received increasing attention--the spying that nations undertake against foreign-owned corporations in order to give their own firms an advantage in the increasingly cut-throat world of international business. Unlike the politico-military espionage of the cold war, economic espionage pits friendly nations against each other. Instead of military strategy and weapon technologies, the sought-after secrets in economic espionage are marketing strategies and production technologies. While the cost of politico-military espionage was reduced military security, and damage from economic espionage comes in the form of billions of dollars annually in lost international contracts, pirated products and stolen corporate proprietary information.”