Sensitive research & anti-money laundering: a possible marriage of convenience?

Nation-states are increasingly turning to the use of espionage and foreign interference to further their programmes of technology acquisition. This threat is especially prevalent where sensitive, technological, and innovative research is taking place—namely our universities and higher education institutions. To prevent the diffusion of technological knowledge against the national interest, Western nations are erecting bulwarks against illicit technology transfers, consisting of both legal and policy frameworks with varying degrees of success. In that context, this paper has two aims. The first is to expose an under-theorised area of legal research. The second aim is to explore a novel regulatory mechanism—adapted from the existing anti-money laundering regime—that could both enhance the current anti-money laundering regime and be applied to sensitive and dual-use research, with a view to providing a robust and matured response to foreign interference and espionage by international threat actors.