If the United States military is a soldier, then the Department of Defense is its head. The DoD directs Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, National Guard and Reserve operations and is headed by the president of the United States and the secretary of defense. In the past, the department has severely restricted access to the deepest areas of the military’s brain: national security and defense-related research. Only American-born researchers could receive security clearance to work on top-level national defense projects. But the DoD is beginning to open its mind—in more ways than one—to a potentially dangerous policy change.

On November 2, the India Times News Network reported that foreign-born researchers could soon be walking through some of the most secure doors in the U.S. military as a result of a proposed amendment to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement. Among other things, the amendment relaxes restrictions against foreign-born researchers participating in the sensitive, high-level federal research that forms the basis of the military’s high-tech central nervous system.

“With nearly half the doctorate holders in science and engineering in the U.S. being foreign-born,” the Times reports, “the U.S. government is waking up to the futility of keeping them out of or severely restricting their participation in high-level federal research.” The report continues:

While there is apprehension among respondents that the proposed changes would affect national security, the DoD maintains that restricting foreign participation may deprive the U.S. of “capabilities that result in essential contributions to maintaining U.S. military superiority.” …In such a situation, barring foreign scientists and researchers from federally-funded projects may prove to be counterproductive.

Keeping half of the brightest minds living in America out of defense-related research based on their status as foreign-born citizens might indeed result in decreased productivity. But letting them in might result in the national equivalent of a stroke.

To learn more about the U.S.’s technology vulnerability issues, read “Terrorists Take Advantage of Technology,” “China’s Quiet War,” and “America’s Achilles Heel— and Germany,” available on theTrumpet.com.