This study focuses on the recent adoption of "international education" (IE) by US public schools. Theoretically, it conceptualises this phenomenon as a social movement and a dynamic arena of knowledge construction and contestation. Methodologically, it combines fieldwork, interviews and critical discourse analysis. The central finding is that multiple meanings are circulating on an asymmetrical field: a discourse of national security dominates the "IE" movement but competing discourses (global perspective, cosmopolitanism, international student body) are found closer to the ground of school practice. (Contains 1 table and 7 notes.)