Confronting US imperialism with international law. Central America and the arms trade of the inter-war period
This article analyses attempts to regulate the access to arms in Central America from the beginning of the World War I to the end of the 1920s. During these years, the USA was not only the politically and economically dominant force in the region – they were also the main provider of weapons. In a region where societies were reshaped by the integration into a global economy, political groups depended on the access to weapons to enforce their claims for power. This gave the US government the possibility to use arms exports as well as arms embargos to shape politics in the region. Within this setting, arms control through international law became a contested subject. The First World War boosted international debates about disarmament. The Wilson administration joined these debates with proposals, which would have enabled Washington to better control the flow of arms into the Western Hemisphere. Central American governments, on the other hand, joined disarmament negotiations in Geneva to shape international law in a way to restrict Washington’s influence in the region and to ensure equal treatment at the international level. The impact of this conflict was not limited to the Western Hemisphere, and it left its imprint on European disarmament policies. Thus, this article reveals how international arms control was inscribed at the same time in imperial and anti-imperial agendas in a region with formally sovereign states.