Arms control treaty could land security researchers like me in jail

So #wassenaar has infected your Twitter timeline for the past several days. I thought I'd explain what the big deal is.

What’s a Wassenaar?

Wassenaar is a town in Europe, where in 1996 a total of 41 nations agreed to an arms control treaty. The name of the agreement, the Wassenaar Arrangement, comes from the name of the town. The US, Europe, and Russia are part of the agreement. Africa, the Middle East, and China are not.

The primary goal of the arrangement is anti-proliferation, stopping uranium enrichment and chemical weapons precursors. Another goal is to control conventional weapons, keeping them out of the hands of regimes that would use them against their own people or to invade their neighbors.