From War Abroad to Policing at Home
How U.S. Militarism Travels from Foreign Policy to Domestic Policing
Friday, March 6, 2026 | 4:00–5:15 PM ET | Virtual
U.S. militarism does not stop at national borders. Over the past several decades, policies, technologies, and legal frameworks developed for foreign conflict have increasingly shaped how power is exercised at home, particularly through domestic policing, surveillance, and emergency authority.
On Friday, March 6, 2026, the Peace Economy Project will host a public webinar examining this often-hidden pipeline from foreign policy to local governance: From War Abroad to Policing at Home: How U.S. Militarism Travels from Foreign Policy to Domestic Policing.
This 75-minute panel will bring together leading voices in foreign policy, national security law, peace advocacy, and community analysis to explore how militarized thinking moves inward—and what that means for democracy, civil liberties, and public safety in the United States.
Why This Conversation Matters
From the War on Drugs to post-9/11 counterterrorism, “war” frameworks have repeatedly been imported into domestic policy. Military equipment flows to local police departments. Emergency powers become normalized. Surveillance tools developed for foreign intelligence are repurposed for protest monitoring and immigration enforcement.
These shifts are often presented as technical or temporary. In reality, they reflect deeper political choices about whose safety is prioritized, how dissent is managed, and how power is justified in moments of crisis.
This webinar will focus not on abstract critique, but on how these systems work, how they expand, and how communities experience their consequences.
Featured Panelists
- John Walsh
John Walsh is a prominent expert on drug policy in the Americas, serving as the Director for Drug Policy and the Andes at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). He has been with WOLA since 2003, leading efforts to promote more humane and effective drug policies, analyzing the impacts of supply-reduction strategies, and advocating for alternatives to the “war on drugs”. - Rachel E. VanLandingham
Rachel E. VanLandingham, Lt Col. (ret.), is a national security law expert and former active duty judge advocate in the U.S. Air Force (USAF) who was appointed to the Southwestern Law School full-time faculty in Fall 2014 and awarded tenure as a full professor in 2018. In addition to her award-winning scholarship, Professor VanLandingham is a frequent media commentator sought after for her military law expertise. - Sanho Tree
Sanho Tree is a Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and has been Director of its Drug Policy Project since 1998. A former military and diplomatic historian, his current work encompasses the reform of both international and domestic drug policies by promoting alternatives to the failed prohibitionist model. In recent years the project has focused on ending the damage caused by the drug wars in Colombia, Bolivia, Mexico, Afghanistan, and the Philippines. Establishing humane and sustainable alternatives to the drug war fits into the IPS mandate as one of the major contemporary social justice issues at home and abroad. - Timothy Numann
Peace and Conflict Resolution Fellow for Peace Economy Project. His work focuses on conflicts in countries across the globe.
The panel will be moderated by Katerina Canyon, Executive Director of the Peace Economy Project.
What Participants Will Gain
- A clearer understanding of how foreign military policy shapes domestic policing and surveillance
- Insight into the legal and budgetary mechanisms that enable militarization to persist
- Perspectives on how communities resist and challenge militarized governance
- Tools for asking sharper questions about public safety, democracy, and accountability
Event Details
Recording: Will be made available after the event
Date: Friday, March 6, 2026
Time: 4:00–5:15 PM ET
Format: Virtual webinar with live Q&A
Cost: Free and open to the public
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