Beelzebubalicious, supply may be an issue too
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...anyone heard of a cultural section that would primarily be involved in anthropological or sociological research and reporting?
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Originally Posted by
Tom Odom
Good question and no answer that you would hope for; I have been in or around 6 different embassies and the DoD head as Defense Attache in 2. Very few show any interest in what you suggest.
If you search marct's posts, he has said some interesting things (and as been involved in academic debates, and written some interesting articles) about norms of professional conduct in the anthropological community. Even if government agencies increased their demand for this, it seems to me (from what marct has said) that it might be difficult to find willing suppliers of the relevant expertise.
ps to Tom-- Your book on Rwanda sounds extremely interesting and I plan to buy it and read it soon.
Heh. I can agree with all that...
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Originally Posted by
Old Eagle
I was blessed in my 3 embassy postings to have engaged political and econ officers who really tried to grasp the cultural underpinnings of what was going on. It was essential that they do that because in all 3 cases, the populations involved were doing things that ran against the "conventional wisdom" of Washington. One of the countries had both AID and Peace Corps programs. Talking with those folks was extremely enlightening because they interfaced with different populations than the rest of us did. I am proud to say that I got out a lot, especially to neighborhood bars, in order to judge the mood of the "street" -- and to drink. (Not necessarily in that order).
It's sometimes hard to figure out what drives Washington, however. I remember a tasker to the embassy in Belgrade to report on the status of mouflons in the mountains in the final days running up to the Kosovo war. Hmmm.
Agree wholeheartedly with your first para, been there and one that as they say. As an aside, there are places where it is REALLY hard to find Bourbon...
On the second, I'm inclined to blame human fallibility and ego, not in that order. One gets to a position in DC (or, too frequently, just a Position...) and is suddenly anointed with superior knowledge and capabilities and need pay no attention to the folks who know the terrain. We spend millions of dollars annually training FAOs and then the Generals ignore them. It is obvious to me that the same thing applies to the political appointees at Foggy Bottom with respect to the FSOs out in the world.
The terrible thing about that is that the nation is paying a penalty as we speak for years of that foolishness...:mad: