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Thread: The Minerva Consortium

  1. #21
    Council Member Umar Al-Mokhtār's Avatar
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    Default There's a dress code?

    Quote Originally Posted by SteveMetz View Post
    Military guys in civilian clothes will have a navy blazer, khakis, and a J.C. Penny tie that is knotted about three inches too short. Cheap digital watch set to beep every fifteen minutes required. One of those green, cloth covered notebooks a plus.
    Which is exactly why I lean heavily towards board shorts, t-shirts, and Vans!

    One way out of jury duty is to let them know you are in favor of the death penalty, even for misdemeanors, and carried out publicly.

    Isn’t some sort of muted English tweed jacket with leather elbow patches, a silk cravat topped of with a meerschaum de rigueur for the staid, solemn scions of academe?
    "What is best in life?" "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women."

  2. #22
    Council Member SteveMetz's Avatar
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Umar Al-Mokhtār View Post
    Which is exactly why I lean heavily towards board shorts, t-shirts, and Vans!

    One way out of jury duty is to let them know you are in favor of the death penalty, even for misdemeanors, and carried out publicly.

    Isn’t some sort of muted English tweed jacket with leather elbow patches, a silk cravat topped of with a meerschaum de rigueur for the staid, solemn scions of academe?
    OK, I plead guilty to the tweed jacket (bought in Edinborough) and the meerschaum pipe. But I ain't got no cravat. I did break down and drop like $700 on academic regalia about five years ago. Have worn it exactly once. I figure I'll amortize it by getting buried in it. The upside is that no matter how fat I get, I'm not going to outgrow it.

    I think there's a generational divide, though. We old fart academics wanted to look like we were one of those wrong-side-of-the-road driving English types. Hence the tweed and pipes. The younger ones want to pretend they're living in Berkeley during the Summer of Love.

  3. #23
    Council Member Randy Brown's Avatar
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    Default Cultural Landscaping

    Quote Originally Posted by marct View Post
    I find myself in a rather odd position here; I am primarily a theoretician who does an incredible amount of applied work. If we use the physical sciences as a model, I would think that the best avenue to take would be some fairly wide open basic research. I think that limitations to studies of governance issues or community building is a major mistake ...
    My apologies! My example of "community planning" was a ham-handed attempt to juxtapose an example of a concrete/applied something with a presumedly more abstract something-else. On the civilian side, my graduate work was an interdisciplinary mix between Community and Regional Planning (CRP) and Architecture--the applications of cultural landscape (political, geographic, historical, economic) to nuts-and-bolts problems like designing a structure, organizing citizens, or writing a municipal code. I hope that helps explain where I was coming from--and where I was trying to go.

    Quote Originally Posted by marct View Post
    One of the things I would like to see would be a bonus for multi- / inter-disciplinary proposals that incorporate both theoretical and applied research from many different disciplines.
    I realize this isn't want you meant by "bonusing," but your comment caused me to wonder about the possibilities inherent in a Nobel Prize or X-Prize incentive. Would an annual Minerva Prize have any merit? (A virgin-warrior statue of some sort would seem to be the most likely physical presentation ...)

    Also, I'm loathe to suggest a Minerva Journal, but wouldn't it also follow that the consortium would create/encourage opportunities for peer-reviewed publication?
    L2I is "Lessons-Learned Integration."
    -- A lesson is knowledge gained through experience.
    -- A lesson is not "learned" until it results in organizational or behavioral change.
    -- A lesson-learned is not "integrated" until shared successfully with others.

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    Quote Originally Posted by SteveMetz View Post
    My sense is that certain disciplines and subdisciplines are inherently adverse to--depending on one's perspective--cooperating with the military or doing policy relevant research. Anthro seems to be the worst. Within political science, there is a lot of hostility from Middle East and Latin America specialists, some from Africanists, and less from other subfields.
    warning: I'm about to get on a hobby-horse here

    This is assuming, of course, that academics know how to do policy-relevant research. My sense is that most--including most political scientists--don't, for a variety of reasons, ranging from writing style to the lack of an instinctual understanding (or practical experience) of how policy processes happen, and how they can be affected.

    On the flip side, I think there are an awful lot of people on the policy and intel side who aren't very good at utilizing the resources of the academic community.

    As for ME specialists, you're right that there has been enormous reticence to engage with the policy community, in part for the usual ivory tower reasons, and in part because of strong distaste for US policy in the region. I do think that has changed a lot since 9/11, however--certainly some of the very brightest colleagues that I know in the field have regular interactions with the policy community. Indeed, it seems these days that I see them more at policy workshops than I do in regular academic settings.

    On, and just for the record. I don't own a suit--I almost always wear black-on-black.

  5. #25
    i pwnd ur ooda loop selil's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Umar Al-Mokhtār View Post
    Which is exactly why I lean heavily towards board shorts, t-shirts, and Vans!
    Blue Jeans, shirts with computer logo's on them, and Teva's.

    Once criticized by a senior faculty member for not wearing a tie I pointed out an AS400 and said pick that up. He didn't want to get dirty of course. So I told him you can't teach in my lab then. He agreed and told others to leave me alone. I thought because he agreed. Awhile back he said the reason he supported me was he thought anybody who could possibly pick up an AS400 was to scary to argue with.
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  6. #26
    Council Member Boot's Avatar
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    Default Come on Steve....

    Quote Originally Posted by SteveMetz View Post
    Thanks a lot--I'd gone all morning without anything pushing my blood pressure into the red zone.

    Summary of the blog entry: "It would really irritate me if people doing policy relevant research had more money than I do for my irrelevant research."
    You got to thinking about Stephen Garcia and how the Cocks' chances of winning more than 6 games this season went down the tubes with his latest fiasco in 5 points or was it that you were watching a rerun of the UF game last year and noticed Spurrier checking what time it was in the 3rd quarter on National TV...

    Just kidding...

  7. #27
    Council Member marct's Avatar
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    Hi Randy,

    Quote Originally Posted by Randy Brown View Post
    My apologies! My example of "community planning" was a ham-handed attempt to juxtapose an example of a concrete/applied something with a presumedly more abstract something-else. On the civilian side, my graduate work was an interdisciplinary mix between Community and Regional Planning (CRP) and Architecture--the applications of cultural landscape (political, geographic, historical, economic) to nuts-and-bolts problems like designing a structure, organizing citizens, or writing a municipal code. I hope that helps explain where I was coming from--and where I was trying to go.
    Totally, and no worries . I'm afraid that I tend to react badly when I see "applied only" requirements . One of the reasons why the gov't support model worked so well in the physical sciences was because it supported basic, theoretical research which, in turn, opened up a whole slew of new applied area. I really think that this should be a similar initiative, although it is much harder to quantify.

    [quote=Randy Brown;45347]I realize this isn't want you meant by "bonusing," but your comment caused me to wonder about the possibilities inherent in a Nobel Prize or X-Prize incentive. Would an annual Minerva Prize have any merit? (A virgin-warrior statue of some sort would seem to be the most likely physical presentation ...)

    Hmmm, might not be a bad idea, but I imagine that there would be a lot of resistance inside the academy for it. Maybe the way to go would be something along the lines of Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies crossed with the Esalin Institute.

    Quote Originally Posted by Randy Brown View Post
    Also, I'm loathe to suggest a Minerva Journal, but wouldn't it also follow that the consortium would create/encourage opportunities for peer-reviewed publication?
    Peer review publication is a real problem in the social sciences, and it's one of the reasons why the disciplines are fragmenting. One of the fairly standard tactics is for a cluster of people to start their own journal, cite each other and build up their cv's that way - basically creating a splinter discipline and using that to get tenure track positions. This has some implications for setting up a peer review process....

    For example, who is doing the peer reviewing? What is a "peer"? Given the fragmented nature of most of the social science disciplines, how do you handle the radically divergent theoretical assumptions that would show up in articles? (That, BTW, is another reason to support basic theory research...).

    Quote Originally Posted by Rex Brynen View Post
    warning: I'm about to get on a hobby-horse here

    This is assuming, of course, that academics know how to do policy-relevant research. My sense is that most--including most political scientists--don't, for a variety of reasons, ranging from writing style to the lack of an instinctual understanding (or practical experience) of how policy processes happen, and how they can be affected.
    Really good point, Rex. I've done some, looking at immigration and integration issues in Canada, and I can certainly agree with you that it is tricky. I suspect part of it comes from a very simple misunderstanding of what should be in the deliverables and what end states are desired.
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  8. #28
    i pwnd ur ooda loop selil's Avatar
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    I don't know Marc,

    I've thought a few times about starting a journal of interdisciplinary studies. No two authors can be from the same "discipline" within the University system on a paper. I don't like silo's.
    Sam Liles
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    The scholarship of teaching and learning results in equal hatred from latte leftists and cappuccino conservatives.
    All opinions are mine and may or may not reflect those of my employer depending on the chance it might affect funding, politics, or the setting of the sun. As such these are my opinions you can get your own.

  9. #29
    Council Member marct's Avatar
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by selil View Post
    I don't know Marc,

    I've thought a few times about starting a journal of interdisciplinary studies. No two authors can be from the same "discipline" within the University system on a paper. I don't like silo's.
    We've been looking at starting one at Carleton out of our Institute (pure E-journal). The plans are actually fairly advanced, but have been held up by a bunch of unrelated administrative problems (like getting a new Director!). I'll let you know what happens once I talk with the new Director but, if your interested, I think you would be a great person for the Ed Board .
    Sic Bisquitus Disintegrat...
    Marc W.D. Tyrrell, Ph.D.
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  10. #30
    i pwnd ur ooda loop selil's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by marct View Post
    We've been looking at starting one at Carleton out of our Institute (pure E-journal). The plans are actually fairly advanced, but have been held up by a bunch of unrelated administrative problems (like getting a new Director!). I'll let you know what happens once I talk with the new Director but, if your interested, I think you would be a great person for the Ed Board .
    I'd like that. I think in many ways we've forgotten about holistic research.
    Sam Liles
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    The scholarship of teaching and learning results in equal hatred from latte leftists and cappuccino conservatives.
    All opinions are mine and may or may not reflect those of my employer depending on the chance it might affect funding, politics, or the setting of the sun. As such these are my opinions you can get your own.

  11. #31
    Council Member marct's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by selil View Post
    I'd like that. I think in many ways we've forgotten about holistic research.
    Will do - and I agree, holistic research has been structurally mitigated against . Most universities pay a lot of lip service to inter-disciplinarity, but they usually fail to come through in terms of hirings, tenure and promotions. It's also usually fairly hard to get published in top tier journals as well, which is often a tenure requirement, if you try and transcend the core of a single discipline.
    Sic Bisquitus Disintegrat...
    Marc W.D. Tyrrell, Ph.D.
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    The Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, NPSIA
    Carleton University
    http://marctyrrell.com/

  12. #32
    Council Member Randy Brown's Avatar
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    Default More thoughts on Minerva

    Sharon Weinberger at Wired.com's "Danger Room" has just posted a link excerpting an open letter by the Network of Concerned Anthropologists, responding to SECDEF's Minerva Consortium proposal.

    Personally, I find most of the concerns reasonable, if a little breathlessly stated. I take exception to one, however, which fails to come to terms with its own philosophical underpinnings: "The University becomes an instrument rather than a critic of war-making, and spaces for critical discussion of militarism within the university shrink."

    The apparent assumption being that the academy is ideally and inherently a might-is-never-right enterprise, rather than an environment in which the lessons of history (or any other discipline) may be fairly explored--and perhaps even applied.

    In other words, the role of the university should be to apply criticism to all comers, rather than just "war-making," as the organization so inelegantly calls it. At least, thus sez this citizen-soldier-scholar-brewer-patriot ...

    See "Pentagon's Project Minerva Sparks New Anthro Concerns" at:http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/0...erva.html#more
    L2I is "Lessons-Learned Integration."
    -- A lesson is knowledge gained through experience.
    -- A lesson is not "learned" until it results in organizational or behavioral change.
    -- A lesson-learned is not "integrated" until shared successfully with others.

  13. #33
    Council Member marct's Avatar
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    Default The AAA responds to the Minerva Project

    From Savage Minds

    AAA issues statement on Minerva
    Posted by Strong under AAA , Anthropology at war


    Below I append a statement issued today by AAA President Setha Low in response to the defense department’s Project Minerva. AAA is making the rather clever suggestion that projects funded through Minerva be subjected to peer review through established federal channels and agencies, such as NSF, NEH, and NIH. Low writes: “Lacking the kind of of infrastructure for evaluating anthropological research that one finds at these other agencies, we are concerned that the Department of Defense would turn for assistance in developing a selection process to those who are not intimately familiar with the rigorous standards of our discipline.” This statement in particular appears to voice one worry or criticism that many have articulated about the ‘culturing-up’ of the US security apparatus: that it is being done in a shoddy way. It further raises the issue of formal procedures concerning ethical oversight, since, presumably, NSF, NEH, and NIH all require strict adherence to common rule guidelines. (Though we know that DoD also requires this.)
    Full text of the letter at SM and at the AAAs site.
    Sic Bisquitus Disintegrat...
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  14. #34
    Council Member Randy Brown's Avatar
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    Default Update on Minerva

    Offered here for the good of the cause, Sharon Weinberger at Wired's "Danger Room" updates her Minverva Consortium coverage with news that a Broad Agency Announcement has been released, detailing:

    A. What types of proposals could be funded:
    (1) Chinese Military and Technology Research and Archive Programs
    (2) Studies of the Strategic Impact of Religious and Cultural Changes within the Islamic World
    (3) Iraqi Perspectives Project
    (4) Studies of Terrorist Organization and Ideologies
    (5) New Approaches to Understanding Dimensions of National Security, Conflict, and Cooperation

    B. Available funding levels under the program (total funding $50 million U.S., with typical awards anticipated to range from $1 million to $1.5 million per year).

    C. The who-and-how of white-paper review.

    Enjoy!
    L2I is "Lessons-Learned Integration."
    -- A lesson is knowledge gained through experience.
    -- A lesson is not "learned" until it results in organizational or behavioral change.
    -- A lesson-learned is not "integrated" until shared successfully with others.

  15. #35
    Council Member marct's Avatar
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    Hi Randy,

    I downloaded and read the BAA in all of its bureaucratic glory . I'm still bothered by the way that #2 reads; I think it should be more general, along the lines of "Studies of the Strategic Impact of Religious and Cultural Changes" anywhere - period. Restricting it to "the Islamic World" is, IMO, both futile and, at the same time, needlessly limiting.

    What bothers me about it most of all is that it is a needless limitation. I was chatting about the area with the guy who owns my local corner store (nice guy, from Ethiopia originally). One of the points that came out is that religious (in the broad, Geertzian sense) fanaticism appears in every religion and ideology. This implies that it is a human universal; IMO related to how humans process symbol systems and concommitant changes in brain neurology. This is what we should be studying, not some artifially limited group.

    Marc
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    Marc W.D. Tyrrell, Ph.D.
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    The Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, NPSIA
    Carleton University
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  16. #36
    Council Member J Wolfsberger's Avatar
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    Default Marc!

    Quote Originally Posted by marct View Post
    ... religious (in the broad, Geertzian sense) fanaticism appears in every religion and ideology. This implies that it is a human universal; IMO related to how humans process symbol systems and concommitant changes in brain neurology.
    You mean biology has an impact on society and culture?

    Has anyone told the people at Savage Minds?
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  17. #37
    Council Member marct's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by J Wolfsberger View Post
    You mean biology has an impact on society and culture?

    Has anyone told the people at Savage Minds?
    Oh, I suspect they know that deep down . After all, someone had to know something to concoct the PC koolaid .
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    Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies,
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    The Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, NPSIA
    Carleton University
    http://marctyrrell.com/

  18. #38
    Council Member wm's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by marct View Post
    Oh, I suspect they know that deep down . After all, someone had to know something to concoct the PC koolaid .
    I wouldn't be so sure. Even a blind pig finds an acorn occasionally.
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  19. #39
    Council Member Randy Brown's Avatar
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    Default Minerva vs. Old Man River (or should that be 'Neptune'?)

    Another link regarding Minerva Consortium by way of Wired's Danger Room blog. This news article is from the NYT, and discusses both the Minerva effort and a separate (?) forthcoming group of grants from the National Science Foundation.

    Don't want y'all to think I'm single-sourcing, what with my repeated links to Wired, but I'm down in the bunker this week, and my information collection capabilities are less than optimal. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm currently concerned less about Small Wars, and more about Big Waters ...

    FYI, Marct, I'm still noodling on the question of how to incentivize decidedly smaller academic, professional, for- and/or non-profit reading, writing and research. I'll let you know if and when I come up with the proverbial million dollar idea. Cheers until then!
    L2I is "Lessons-Learned Integration."
    -- A lesson is knowledge gained through experience.
    -- A lesson is not "learned" until it results in organizational or behavioral change.
    -- A lesson-learned is not "integrated" until shared successfully with others.

  20. #40
    Council Member marct's Avatar
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    Hi Randy,

    Quote Originally Posted by Randy Brown View Post
    FYI, Marct, I'm still noodling on the question of how to incentivize decidedly smaller academic, professional, for- and/or non-profit reading, writing and research. I'll let you know if and when I come up with the proverbial million dollar idea. Cheers until then!
    No worries - I'm still thinking about it too . Anyway, I hope the flooding hasn't driven you out of your home (driven to drink being a completely different matter ).

    Marc
    Sic Bisquitus Disintegrat...
    Marc W.D. Tyrrell, Ph.D.
    Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies,
    Senior Research Fellow,
    The Canadian Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, NPSIA
    Carleton University
    http://marctyrrell.com/

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