He is a political sociologist and urban ethnographer specializing in security politics, police-military relations, humanitarian law and authoritarian states. He researches the transnational and urban dynamics of police militarization as well as state violence against racial and sexual minorities in the cities of Latin America and the Middle East. Dr. Amar has worked at the United Nations, and on behalf of community struggles to fight police brutality and military atrocity, and to strengthen institutions of citizenship and cultures of legality.