Editing Dual-use technology (section)

{{Short description|Technology that can be used for both peaceful and military purposes}}

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 | image1 = Unimog 406 (01).jpg
 | alt1 = An civilian Unimog 406 truck painted in pastel colours in front of a forest background.
 | image2 = Unimog S 404 (Sp 2014-06-15) (cropped).JPG
 | alt2 = A military Unimog S 404 truck painted in camouflage in front of a forest background.
 | footer = [[Unimog]] trucks are an example of a dual-use good used in both civil and military contexts.
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In [[politics]], [[diplomacy]] and [[export control]], '''dual-use items''' refer to goods, [[software]] and [[technology]] that can be used for both [[civilian]] and [[military]] applications.<ref name="eu_dual-use">[https://policy.trade.ec.europa.eu/help-exporters-and-importers/exporting-dual-use-goods_en ''Exporting dual-use goods.''] European Commission (accessed Aug 2022)</ref>

More generally speaking, dual-use can also refer to any goods or technology which can satisfy more than one goal at any given time. Thus, expensive technologies originally benefitting only military purposes would in the future also be used to serve civilian commercial interests if they were not otherwise engaged, such as the [[Global Positioning System]] developed by the [[U.S. Department of Defense]].

The "dual-use dilemma" was first noted with the discovery of the process for synthesizing and mass-producing [[ammonia]] which revolutionized agriculture with modern fertilizers but also led to the creation of [[chemical weapons]] during [[World War I]]. The dilemma has long been known in chemistry and physics, and has led to international conventions and treaties, including the [[Chemical Weapons Convention]] and the [[Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Webb |first1=Amy |title=The Next Pandemic Could Start With a Terrorist Attack |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/02/pandemic-terrorist-attack-biowarfare/622067/ |access-date=17 February 2022 |work=The Atlantic |date=14 February 2022 |language=en}}</ref>