Leave No MRAP Behind: Geographies of Delegation, Militarization and Urbanism in the U.S.

With the U.S. recalling about 27,000 MRAP vehicles (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) from the military Theater of Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, news circulated about the domestic redeployment of 13,000 MRAPs to different local police and security agencies. The domestic redeployment is part of a plan to keep the surplus MRAPs in service (yet on loan from DoD), and different examples appear to this date that justify a normalization of their use (transforming them to ambulances, use by research teams, use in drug wars, etc.). However, the appearance of such vehicles in the recent clashes when the police cracked down on dissenting protesters in Baltimore brought such normalization to the forefront of public scrutiny. To address some of these concerns, the proposed paper shall ask: How can we read the blurring of battleground with the circulation and redeployment of the surplus MRAPs on US soil? How does the introduction of the MRAPs into urban settings inform urbanism and urbanization? How can we read the design of such vehicles as a cause and effect of the militarization of space? * Numbers still to be confirmed.