Comments on: Anthropology and Global Counter-Insurgency Conference in Chicago, April 25-27

By: oneman

oneman — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:32:17 +0000

I’ll have a link to the conference website up tomorrow — they’re just cleaning up a few things before the site goes live. Then you can examine the list of presenters and their abstracts for yourself.

In the meantime, let me say, I think anthropologists certainly have a right to discuss amongst themselves the nature of our discipline and it’s relation to military prerogatives. Somehow it’s been decided that anthropology is “all about” other people’s perspectives, and that anthropologist’s own perspectives have no weight on their own. It’s the same kind of thinking that clogs anthropology listservs and, indeed, SM’s comments with irrelevancies from people who have no experience or knowledge of anthropology and its literature — anthropology stands with memoir writing and blogging as a field that is, apparently, so easy that anyone can do it.

The reality is, the military’s involvement with anthropology *changes* anthropology, and I don’t think we have to be too generous in asking their opinion about all that. Counter-insurgency kills people, and I don’t think we have to be too generous about that, either. I think this is entirely a different subject than whether anthropologists should formally study the military, or the insurgency situation — but I don’t see anyone offering that opportunity, in any case.

For myself, it’s enough to know that history doesn’t have much good to offer by way of successful counter-insurgency anthropology. Anthropologists in counter-insurgency situations have pretty universally failed to apply any critical perspective to their employers’ principles, accepting as a given the reality that counter-insurgency attempts to impose. I’m sure a Nagl or even a McFate could put a sweet, perfumey smell on that track record, but in the end, it’s still crappy.

By: gretchen

gretchen — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 07:57:41 +0000

jane:
You might reexamine the list of participants for this conference. Though no editor of Small Wars Journal is listed, nor is McFate (would she come?) I doubt that all the viewpoints represented match those you expect…the debate around HTS at Chicago appears to be a lively and polyvocal one (though I can only see it from a great transatlantic distance).

By: Melvin

Melvin — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 01:52:53 +0000

I’m so glad to hear that McFate, Kilcullen, Nagle, Celeski etc. don’t rehash their own political agendas. Do we know that none of these people (are any of them besides McFate are even anthropologists?) were’nt invited? I thought McFate won’t attend meetings with open discussions with anthropologists.

By: jane

jane — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 23:51:12 +0000

I thought (maybe I was wrong) that anthropology was supposed to be about understanding the perspective of the people you study — so if you’re going have a conference on counterinsurgency, shouldn’t you at least invite some military people who actually do this professionally? Why don’t you invite somebody who actually knows something about the subject, such as Dave Kilcullen, John Nagl, Montgomery McFate, COL Joe Celeski, William McCallister, Erin Simpson, etc.? That would make the conference much more informative and worthwhile — otherwise, it’s really just a bunch of anthropologists rehashing their own political agendas.

By: Dustin M. Wax

Dustin M. Wax — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 04:00:13 +0000

Conference Details: Anthropology and Global Counter-Insurgency…

I’ve just posted information at Savage Minds about the conference I will be presenting at later this month. Rather than repost the whole post, I’m going to direct you there to have a look.
…

By: Strong

Strong — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:08:52 +0000

Awesome. Keep us posted!