Beyond Color-Blind National Security Law

Abstract

Abstract Unlike much of mainstream national security law scholarship, this chapter shows how critical approaches to national security law, especially by African Americans and Third World intellectuals, make the case that foreign affairs, colonialism, imperialism, and race are and have always been closely and intimately connected. This chapter also traces the enduring legacies of colonialism in modern national security law doctrine, especially in the United States. In doing so, the chapter traces the parallels and precedents established in “national” security case law on habeas in British colonies to contemporary habeas cases like the 2004 U.S. Supreme Court case, Rasul v. Bush. Ultimately, this chapter makes the case for overcoming the disciplinary silos that are characterized by the study of national security law without taking into account its intimate relationship to race, colonial-era doctrines, and imperialism.