Quote Originally Posted by marct View Post
Actually, it was one of the projects that destroyed the last vestiges of Anthropology working with the intel / military sector. David Price's articles (referenced in my SWJ article) deal with this in great detail if you are interested.
Marc,
I haven't read David Price's article (or your SWJ article I'm sorry to say, but I'd appreciate a link ), but I'm sure you've read Montgomery McFate's article "Anthropology and Counterinsurgency: The Strange Story of their Curious Relationship"? (available here). McFate mentions an ostracized anthro:

Anthropologist Gerald Hickey explored the indigenous Vietnamese cultural
concept of accommodation. While Taoist roots of the Vietnamese value system stressed individualism, in the Vietnamese worldview, accommodation was
also necessary to restore harmony with the universe. In Washington, D.C., Hickey’s views on accommodation were treated as heresy. In 1967, at the conclusion of Hickey’s brief to a Pentagon audience, Richard Holbrooke said, “What you’re saying, Gerry, is that we’re not going to win a military victory in
Vietnam.” Because it did not conform to the prevailing view of the conflict, Hickey’s message was promptly dismissed...Hickey was awarded the medal for Distinguished Public Service by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. Despite his medal (or perhaps because of it), Hickey was not able to get an
academic job when he returned to the United States. He was refused a position at the University of Chicago by fellow anthropologists who objected to his association with RAND. Ironically, Hickey was also forced out of
RAND because it was no longer interested in counterinsurgency.

And then there's a "movement" (?) to continue this institutional culture clash:
The fact that Kilcullen and others are eager to commit social-science knowledge to goals established by the Defense Department and the CIA is indicative of a new anthropology of insurgency. Anthropology under these circumstances appears as just another weapon to be used on the battlefield — not as a tool for building bridges between peoples, much less as a mirror that we might use to reflect upon the nature of our own society.
See Fighting the militarization of anthropology for more on Kilcullen=bad.