22 CFR Part 120 (ITAR — Purpose and Definitions)

22 CFR Part 120, titled “Purpose and Definitions,” is the opening part of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), codified at 22 CFR Parts 120–130 and administered by the US Department of State’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC). Part 120 does two things: Subpart A states ITAR’s statutory basis (the Arms Export Control Act) and general purpose, and Subpart C (22 CFR 120.30 through 120.69) sets out the definitions that control how every other ITAR part is interpreted, from the US Munitions List (Part 121, which lists the actual controlled defense articles and services) through licensing, exemptions, and enforcement (Parts 122–130). For a research institution, an export-control determination almost always starts by applying a Part 120 definition to a specific fact pattern — is this a ‘defense article,’ does sharing this count as an ‘export,’ is this person a ‘US person’ — rather than by consulting a substantive control provision directly.

Key definitions in Subpart C

The definitions most relevant to a research setting include:

• Defense article — any item or technical data designated on the US Munitions List (22 CFR Part 121), including technical data recorded or stored in any physical form, and models, mock-ups, or other items that reveal technical data directly relating to a listed item.
• Defense service — furnishing assistance (including training) to foreign persons, in the United States or abroad, in the design, development, engineering, manufacture, production, testing, repair, maintenance, modification, operation, or use of a defense article; furnishing technical data to foreign persons; or providing military training to foreign units and forces.
• Technical data — information required for the design, development, production, manufacture, assembly, operation, repair, testing, maintenance, or modification of a defense article. The definition explicitly excludes information already in the public domain and basic marketing or general system-description information.
• US person (22 CFR 120.62) — a lawful permanent resident as defined at 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(20), or a ‘protected individual’ as defined at 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), plus any corporation, business association, partnership, trust, or other entity incorporated or organized to do business in the United States, and any federal, state, or local governmental entity.
• Foreign person (22 CFR 120.63) — any natural person who is not a US person as defined above, plus any foreign corporation, business association, partnership, trust, or other entity not incorporated or organized to do business in the United States, and any foreign government, international organization, or diplomatic mission.
• Export — broadly, sending or taking a defense article out of the United States, disclosing or transferring technical data to a foreign person (whether in the US or abroad), or performing a defense service on behalf of, or for the benefit of, a foreign person. This is the definitional basis for what CASRAI’s Deemed export entry describes operationally: a disclosure of controlled technical data to a foreign national physically present in a US lab is treated as an export to that person’s home country.

These are working summaries of the current regulatory text and are not a substitute for the primary source; DDTC has amended ITAR’s definitions section repeatedly, including a substantial 2020 reorganization of Subpart C’s section numbering, so an institution making an actual compliance determination should confirm current wording directly against 22 CFR Part 120 rather than relying on any secondary summary, including this one.

Why Part 120 matters operationally, not just as a citation

Research institutions rarely cite Part 120 on its own; it is invoked implicitly every time an export control office applies the ITAR and EAR distinction, screens a Technology Control Plan (TCP) against a specific foreign national’s access, or evaluates whether the fundamental research exclusion (rooted in NSDD-189) applies to a given project. Because ‘defense article,’ ‘technical data,’ ‘US person,’ and ‘foreign person’ are Part 120 terms of art with specific regulatory meanings that do not always match their plain-English usage — a green-card holder is a US person under ITAR regardless of citizenship; a non-immigrant visa holder generally is not — treating them as self-evident is a common source of compliance error. Part 120 does not itself control anything; Part 121 (the US Munitions List) supplies the actual controlled-item categories that Part 120’s definitions are applied against, and Parts 122–130 supply the licensing, exemption, and enforcement mechanics that follow once an item, service, or disclosure has been classified using Part 120’s terms.

References

• International Traffic in Arms Regulations, Purpose and Definitions, 22 CFR Part 120, US Department of State, Directorate of Defense Trade Controls.
• 22 CFR 120.62 (U.S. person) and 22 CFR 120.63 (Foreign person), Subpart C, 22 CFR Part 120.
• US Munitions List, 22 CFR Part 121.