A Legal Arms Dealer’s Biography & the Banality of Aspirational Evil

For many, the arms trade and its dealers are the root cause of transnational organised crime, global terrorism, regional wars and genocide. In both public and academic debates, arms dealers are considered immoral because they profit from conflict happening large-scale in the international arms trading business. Nevertheless, there seems to be little to no interest in the personal lives of those actively involved. Nor is there widespread curiosity about why we actually demonize arms dealers.

Yarin Eski has written a criminological biography of Constantine, a licensed thus legal arms dealer. It provides deep insights into Constantine’s all too human choices and life events. In his lecture, Eski will elaborate on Constantine’s biography and explain why his life’s story enables us to understand our society’s "biography", and why we demonise arms dealers.