Manufacturing and Trade of Dual-Use Microelectronics: Perspective ofState Security in Poland. Research Reconnaissance

Abstract

The article describes Poland's current position on the global electronics and software market in the context of trade of dual-use products. It puts forward the hypothesis that Poland's geopolitical loca-tion makes local electronics and ICT companies vulnerable to corruption, IT system hacking, and penetra-tion by intelligence services from the Russian Federation, China, and other countries interested in purchas-ing embargoed technologies or obtaining scientific and technical information covered by state or trade secrets. A set of entities (section 1) was defined that may be of interest to foreign state and private organ-izations, including those based outside the Russian Federation and the PRC (in order to conceal the end user). The circle of companies exposed to corruption offers was then narrowed down to approx. 400-500, indicating that not all segments of semiconductor chip production are present on the Polish market. The main research questions concern what geopolitical factors pose a threat to Polish electronics companies in their market behavior? (2); what do national and European law require of these companies in terms of compliance with sanctions? (3); what threats should these companies take into account when planning.