Yousef Baker

Biography

Yousef K. Baker is an assistant professor in the International Studies Program at California State University, Long Beach and the co-director of the Global Middle East Studies Program.

Abstract

Imperial Crisis and Racialized Militarization: Reconceptualizing the invasion and occupation of Iraq

This paper argues that the 2003 war was not about Iraq but rather about American anxieties. In the post-Cold War era, the U.S. does not face any serious threats, but its politics are built on the specter of imminent existential threats. The specter functions to give cover for a neoliberal state that has backed away from social welfare as it ramps up its social control capabilities. This paper examines the policies of the occupation as well as how American policy makers and soldiers talked about the war to describe how racialized militarization as an economic circuit, political project, and a social affect is a central place around which the neoliberal state is organized.