# CoCom **Aliases:** Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls **Entity class:** Multilateral export-control regime **Domain:** Cold War / technology denial / strategic trade **Doc Type:** Developed Organization Node **Maturity:** Historical ## Definition **CoCom** was the Western multilateral mechanism that coordinated export controls on strategic goods to the Soviet bloc from 1949 to 1994. Computers, semiconductor equipment, numerical-control systems, and related technologies were recurring controlled categories. ## Evidence Ledger - **Established:** CoCom members maintained coordinated restrictions on advanced computing and industrial technologies. - **Established:** The controls produced acquisition efforts, evasion networks, and substitution programs in the Soviet bloc. - **Strongly indicated:** CoCom made computation an explicit object of alliance-level denial policy. - **Unresolved:** The program-by-program effect of particular controls; licensing files, intelligence assessments, and procurement records decide each case. ## Sources / Provenance - U.S. Department of State, [historical Foreign Relations documentation on strategic trade controls](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1950v04/d582). - [[articles/A History of Machine Intelligence|A History of Machine Intelligence]]. ## Relationships - **Belongs to:** [[wiki/Denial Wars|Denial Wars]]. - **Countered by:** Soviet technology acquisition including the [[wiki/Farewell Dossier|Farewell]] network. - **Prefigures:** contemporary [[wiki/Entity List|Entity List]] controls.