About the talk:

In October 2018, Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate. Reports linked the murder to the Saudi crown prince and revealed the use of Pegasus, an Israeli-developed spyware, to monitor Khashoggi's associates. How does technology originated in the Israeli military end up in Saudi Arabia? How has a global surveillance market, dominated by private Israeli companies like NSO, Candiru, and Cellebrite, emerged? More broadly, how do military technologies end up in private hands? And with what consequences? Challenging the current scholarship on Israel's hi-tech success, I disclose a potentially conflictual relationship between the military and the market in Israel. I show that the leakage of military technologies to the private market stems from a historical shift in Israel from 'capitalist-oriented militarism' to 'militarist-based capitalism.' This transformation challenges the popular notion of the “military-industrial complex,” and requires a new articulation of the interplay between the security establishment, innovation, and economic development.

About the speaker:

Nitsan Chorev is the Harmon Family Professor of Sociology and International and Public Affairs at Brown University. Among other publications, Professor Chorev is the author of three books: 'Give and Take: Developmental Foreign Aid and the Pharmaceutical Industry in East Africa,' 'The World Health Organization between North and South,' and 'Remaking U.S. Trade Policy: From Protectionism to Globalization.' She's currently conducting research on the relations between the high-tech industry, the state, and the military in Israel.