I've been lurking far too much and not posting enough. I can't help but say 'mea culpa' at that. This is a bit of a long and rambling post. My apologies. I've written 3 RFPS in 4 weeks and I am approaching 'deranged'.
A bit of where I'm coming from. My academic background is in Religious Studies- Islamic to be precise- and I've spent a lot of time pondering terrorism and broader themes of religious violence. Although my day job is currently a technical writer, I consider myself an independent scholar. During my entire undergraduate career I was groomed to be academic. I did make it through my Master's, but the funding in the humanities in the US is terrible. Not to mention the job market. Que sera sera.
A friend recently sent me "Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency lessons from Malaya and Vietnam" by Nagl. I'm sure you're all very familiar with it.
As I've been reading through it, I've been thinking a great deal about the lessons that we (I'm speaking as an American here) have learned over this past decade of conflict. While I know we have learned some, I get the sense those lessons have not quite sank in. I'm concerned that by the time they are formalized and published, their relevance will have faded significantly. Nagl discusses this snail's pace of doctrinal change in the US military system at length, and I've found it closely mirrored the academic life cycle of information 10-15 years ago. Books take a long time to write, edit, and publish. Back then, they'd have a decent shelf life. Now, books seem out of date by the time they hit the presses. Academia moves at about the same pace as military institutions do, but institutions seem to be embracing the digital revolution. Small Wars has a chance to be part of that revolution that pulls the doctrinal beast out of the Stone Ages.
Anyhoo, I've spent some time reading through the last six or so pages of comments and I've distilled what I think are a few key questions/concerns/points:
First, how do we make this little corner of the internet grow? What types of people do we want to attract to it?
I'm a member of the H-Net Middle East Politics mailing list and I had to provide verification of my academic credentials, what my research interests were, and what I was hoping to gain. This may be overkill for SWC, but it is something to consider. Perhaps everyone can post, but if you do have some kind of academic of military related credential, adding it to your title so the community is aware? Maybe the Editors can maintain a list of folks with appropriate credentials to do book/article reviews?
With that said, I do have ideas on how to get more folks from the humanities over here.
- Make the journal peer reviewed. Yes, this will require time but it can be put on the c.v. Academic service and all that jazz, but you're not going to be truly taken seriously without peer review.
- Perhaps soliciting entries from scholars on a theme, and then having op-ed pieces?
- Do we reach out to other organizations? MESA, AAR, and APSA come to mind off the top of my head.
- Do we attend conferences and panels?
A few other members have brought up concerns regarding viewpoints other than official' not being welcomed. Maybe this is a good time to have a broad discussion about this? And what better location than here! How do we, not only as a community internalize this, but affect change.
- Does the military really want to change or do they want to just check in the box?
- Is the anti-intellectual culture myth or reality?
- Now that the chapter of history that is OIF/OEF is closing, how do we retain these lessons we've learned and ensure they're carried forward?
SWC is a place to gather, discuss, and learn. Jcustis has been after me for awhile to do a podcast series on topics surrounding Islam and other religions. Maybe we can podcast different discussions or roundtables?
What about a reading club? We can have different groups/themes with moderators. Read a book/article- discuss it in a thread. While the 'Cycle of Bitching' is can be gratifying, it ultimately does nothing. Feed the grey matter monster, discuss it, and apply to your life- repeat.
These are just my suggestions and questions. I'm also willing to put my money where my mouth is and volunteer to get some of this rolling.
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