Race and National Security

On both a national and global stage we are witnessing a reckoning on issues of racial justice. This historical moment that continues to unfold in the United States and elsewhere also creates an opening to spark and revitalize debate and policy changes on a range of crucial topics, including national security. By surfacing the depths to which White hegemonic power influences our institutions and cultural assumptions, we gain more accurate understanding of how race manifests in national security domestically, transnationally, and globally.

In Race and National Security, leading experts challenge conventional interpretations of national security by illuminating the underpinning of White supremacy in our social consciousness. The volume centers the experience of those who have long been on the receiving end of racialized state violence. It finds that re-envisioning national security requires more than just reducing the size and scope of the security state.

Contributors offer visions for reforming and transforming national security, including adopting an abolitionist framework. Race and National Security invites us to radically reimagine a world where the security state does not keep Black, Brown, and other marginalized peoples subordinated through threats of and actual incarceration, violence, torture, and death. Race and National Security is a groundbreaking volume which serves as a catalyst for remembering, exposing, and reconceiving the role of race in national security.

The Just Security book series from OUP tackles contemporary problems in international law and security that are of interest to a global community of scholars, policymakers, practitioners, and students. With each volume taking a particular thematic focus and gathering leading experts, the series as a whole aims to rigorously and critically reflect on developments in these areas of law, policy, and practice. Each volume will be accompanied by a series of shorter digital pieces in Just Security's online forum at www.justsecurity.org, which tie the discussion to breaking news and headlines.