One of our nation's oldest regulatory regimes, the
International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), turned 90 years
old today. A regulatory program to control exports of defense
articles issued during the dawn of the radio era, the ITAR still
has outsized relevance in today's advanced-technology and
digital domains.
The first edition of the ITAR was issued on October 10, 1935 in
a small pamphlet, before the start of the Federal
Register, and was only available from the administering
agency, a store or subscription service run by the Government
Printing Office, or a subscribed local library.
The ITAR came about as a result of the Neutrality Act of 1935,
which was signed into law on August 31, 1935, and President
Roosevelt's resulting proclamation of September 25, 1935, which
was the first version of what would eventually become the U.S.
Munitions List (USML). Although that first proclamation of
"the articles that shall be considered arms, ammunition,
