SWJED
12-18-2006, 01:54 PM
Just ran across this blog - Savage Minds (http://savageminds.org/) - Notes and Queries in Anthropology...
Here is a post from this morning - Cultural Operations Research Human Terrain (http://savageminds.org/2006/12/18/cultural-operations-research-human-terrain/).
Via Kevin Drum (http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2006_12/010412.php), a press release (http://www.newyorker.com/printables/press/061218pr_press_releases) about an article in the New Yorker. With a title like “Can Social Scientists Redefine the War on Terror?” it seems right up our alley. (See previous posts on the topic here (http://savageminds.org/2006/12/07/you-never-link-twice-spying-20/), here (http://savageminds.org/2006/11/22/torture-and-social-scientists/), here (http://savageminds.org/2006/10/08/collaborating-with-corporations/), here (http://savageminds.org/2006/09/01/anthropology-and-the-cia-again/), here (http://savageminds.org/2006/06/01/but-were-at-war/), and here (http://savageminds.org/2005/05/22/funding-scholarship/).) In the New Yorker article George Packer talks to “a remarkable theorist named David Kilcullen, an Australian anthropologist who is also a lieutenant colonel in his country’s Army and the chief strategist in the U.S. State Department’s Office of the Coördinator [sic] for Counterterrorism.” There isn’t much saying what makes Kilcullen so “remarkable” except for his willingness to actively work for the military, but it seems he isn’t the only one:
Anthropologists and former military officers in the Pentagon are currently working on a new project called “Cultural Operations Research Human Terrain,” which is recruiting social scientists around the country to join five-person “human terrain” teams that would go to Iraq and Afghanistan with combat brigades and serve as cultural advisers on six-to-nine-month tours. Pilot teams are planning to leave next spring.
You can read some of Kilcullen’s papers here (http://www.smallwarsjournal.com/ref/counterinsurgency.htm). I wonder if any of the anthropologists engaged with the military on these missions would be willing to blog about their experiences?
Here is a post from this morning - Cultural Operations Research Human Terrain (http://savageminds.org/2006/12/18/cultural-operations-research-human-terrain/).
Via Kevin Drum (http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2006_12/010412.php), a press release (http://www.newyorker.com/printables/press/061218pr_press_releases) about an article in the New Yorker. With a title like “Can Social Scientists Redefine the War on Terror?” it seems right up our alley. (See previous posts on the topic here (http://savageminds.org/2006/12/07/you-never-link-twice-spying-20/), here (http://savageminds.org/2006/11/22/torture-and-social-scientists/), here (http://savageminds.org/2006/10/08/collaborating-with-corporations/), here (http://savageminds.org/2006/09/01/anthropology-and-the-cia-again/), here (http://savageminds.org/2006/06/01/but-were-at-war/), and here (http://savageminds.org/2005/05/22/funding-scholarship/).) In the New Yorker article George Packer talks to “a remarkable theorist named David Kilcullen, an Australian anthropologist who is also a lieutenant colonel in his country’s Army and the chief strategist in the U.S. State Department’s Office of the Coördinator [sic] for Counterterrorism.” There isn’t much saying what makes Kilcullen so “remarkable” except for his willingness to actively work for the military, but it seems he isn’t the only one:
Anthropologists and former military officers in the Pentagon are currently working on a new project called “Cultural Operations Research Human Terrain,” which is recruiting social scientists around the country to join five-person “human terrain” teams that would go to Iraq and Afghanistan with combat brigades and serve as cultural advisers on six-to-nine-month tours. Pilot teams are planning to leave next spring.
You can read some of Kilcullen’s papers here (http://www.smallwarsjournal.com/ref/counterinsurgency.htm). I wonder if any of the anthropologists engaged with the military on these missions would be willing to blog about their experiences?