Arms Trafficking: Its Past, Present, and Future

Historian Brian DeLay, on the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, spoke at an Academy event hosted on the Berkeley campus about how the arms trade has entangled states and markets since before the time of George Washington. The program also included commentary from historians Priya Satia and Daniel Sargent as well as from political scientist Ron Hassner, and concluded with a conversation moderated by Academy member David Hollinger.

The discussion highlighted the importance of studying the history of arms trade to better understand international relations, the history of capitalism and state-making, and power relations between the United States and the rest of the world.

Welcome from Academy President David Oxtoby
04:33 - Introduction by David Hollinger
06:43 - Presentation by Brian DeLay
37:50 - Introduction of Panelists by David Hollinger
40:04 - Remarks by Priya Satia
51:05 - Remarks by Ron Hassner
59:42 - Remarks by Daniel Sargent
1:17:55 - Q&A
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Brian DeLay is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 2009. Earlier, he taught at the University of Colorado, Boulder (2004-09). DeLay’s research explores intersections of U.S., Latin American, and indigenous histories in the long 19th century. He is author of a number of articles and essays, and co-author of the U.S. history textbook “Experience History” (McGraw-Hill). DeLay’s 2008 book, “War of a Thousand Deserts: Indian Raids and the U.S.-Mexican War” (Yale University Press), won prizes from several different scholarly organizations.

Ron Hassner is the Chancellor's Professor of Political Science and holds the Helen Diller Family Chair in Israel Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is faculty director of the Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies. He has taught at UC Berkeley since 2004. Hassner’s teaching has been recognized with awards for excellence by UC Berkeley, the American Political Science Association, and Phi Beta Kappa. His research explores the role of ideas, practices and symbols in international security, with particular attention to the relationship between religion and violence.

David A. Hollinger is the Preston Hotchkis Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught from 1992 until his retirement in 2013. Before joining UC Berkeley, he taught at SUNY Buffalo (1969-77) and the University of Michigan (1977-92). Hollinger specializes in the intellectual and ethno-racial history of the United States since the Civil War. His research focuses on intellectual movements interpreted in the context of larger intellectual history of the U.S. His books and papers have included studies of pragmatism, modernism, multiculturalism, nationalism, and cosmopolitanism. He has also studied the children of American Protestant missionaries in the 20th century, especially those with prominent careers in academia, literature, and government. He was elected a member of the American Academy in 1997 and serves as a member of the Berkeley Program Committee.

Daniel J. Sargent is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 2008. In 2019 he also received an appointment in UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy. He is a historian who specializes in international relations and foreign policy. His work explores how policy makers manage large-scale changes in their international arenas: shifts in the balance of power, economic transformations, and social movements.

Priya Satia is the Raymond A. Spruance Professor of International History and Professor of British History at Stanford University. Satia's research interests span modern British cultural and political history, colonialism and imperialism, the experience and practice of war, technology and culture, human rights and humanitarianism, the state and institutions of government, arms trade, political economy of empire, and environmental history. Her work examines the ways in which the imperial past has shaped the present and how the ethical dilemmas it posed were understood and managed.

David W. Oxtoby is the President of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He is President Emeritus of Pomona College and he was a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Graduate School of Education prior to becoming President of the American Academy. As the ninth president of Pomona College, serving from 2003–2017, he has been recognized as a leader in American higher education, at the forefront in advancing environmental sustainability, increasing college access, cultivating creativity, and pursuing academic excellence in the context of an interdisciplinary liberal arts environment. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2012.