The Color of Threat: Race, Threat Perception, and the Demise of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance (1902-1923)
Security Studies, Forthcoming
47 Pages Posted: 4 May 2013
Date Written: May 3, 2013
Abstract
Race is understudied in International Relations generally and international security specifically. To mitigate this omission, I provide a racial theory of threat perception. I propose that, under certain conditions, racial prejudices embedded in racial identities shape threat perceptions and generate behavioral dispositions. In the first step, racial similarity deflates threat perceptions, while racial difference inflates them. In the second step, deflated threat perceptions facilitate cooperation among racially similar agents, while inflated threat perceptions facilitate discord among racially different agents. Using extensive archival and secondary sources, the article illustrates the explanatory value of the theory in the case of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance (1902-1923).
Keywords: Race, racism, threat perception, identity, prejudice, security, Anglo-Japanese Alliance, Yellow Peril, Anglo-Saxonism
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