In this report, it is argued that a politics of abolitionism offers the best approach to overcoming the failures of US national security policy. Applying an abolitionist approach not only domestically within the US but also to agencies of global security will be an essential part of reconceptualizing the notion of security.
An abolitionist framework entails understanding that genuine security does not result from the elimination of threats but from the presence of collective well-being. It advocates building institutions that foster the social and ecological relationships needed to live dignified lives, rather than reactively identifying groups of people who are seen as threatening. It holds that true security rests not on dominance but on solidarity, at both the personal and the international levels. Only from an internationalist perspective can security problems like climate change and pandemic diseases be addressed. In the long term, it is illusory to achieve security for one group of people at another’s expense. In policy terms, an abolitionist approach would imply a progressive defunding and shrinking of the US’s bloated military, intelligence, and border infrastructure, and the construction of alternative institutions that can provide collective security in the face of environmental and social dangers.
The report begins by analyzing the dominant racial security logic that has shaped US policy and some of the defensive reflexes that have blocked efforts to bring about change. It then applies an abolitionist analysis to the Biden administration’s emerging national security policies. While national security is currently organized in response to a range of threats – such as Russia, cyber-attacks, “failed states,” and nuclear proliferation – this study focuses in particular on China and the far Right as new threat narratives. The limitations of the US’s securitized approach to climate and pandemic crises are then discussed. Finally, some suggestions are made as to how an alternative security politics might emerge in the US.
Read the full report here.
