Paul Amar. (2013). The Security Archipelago: Human-Security States, Sexuality Politics, and the End of Neoliberalism . Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 310 pp., $25.95, paperback (ISBN 978-0-8223-5398-0). When postcolonial and critical International Relations (IR) scholars analyze global politics, they often examine how the Global North draws upon and strengthens international hierarchy by engaging the Global South via international law, militarized humanitarianism, and neoliberal policies. A small but growing number of scholars are focusing on the agency of countries and communities in the Global South, particularly in terms of shaping encounters with the Global North but also within the Global South; accordingly, these scholars challenge perceptions of how hierarchy works and expand understandings of non-Western sovereignty (Rao 2010; Ling 2014). Paul Amar’s stunning, imaginative, and meticulously researched book fits into this conversation by exploring how regimes of governance originate in the Global South, focusing particularly on the semi-peripheral sites of Cairo, Egypt, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. How do states in the Global South respond when local social movements demand that their governments address deep polarization, inequalities, and fears within the society, much of which neoliberalization has catalyzed? Amar traces how states react by deploying the concept of “human security,” recasting economic and social repression as crises of morality and cultural authenticity that can be solved through “humanitarian” intervention, enforced by the military and police. Through a combination of policing, counterinsurgency, peace enforcement, and alliance with a wide range of political actors, … mnayak{at}pace.edu