Dr. Bill McKellin of the Anthropology Department forwarded a segment from CBC Radio’s The Current this morning on Human Terrain Systems:
“Some say it’s humanizing the military. Others charge that it’s militarizing the profession of anthropology. What’s at issue is something called Human Terrain Systems, a new Pentagon counter insurgency initiative in Iraq and Afghanistan.
At the heart of each team is an anthropologist who conducts field research on the local people and helps military commanders make more effective decisions on the ground. The Pentagon is in full support pledging that there will eventually be two dozen of these teams – one with every brigade operating in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
You can listen to an edited audio file of the program here.
Thanks to Greg Feldman for following up with a note about the Network of Concerned Anthropologists, of which he is a founding member, along with 9 others including Roberto Gonzalez who gives the counterpoint in the broadcast to the Human Terrain Systems. The Network of Concerned Anthropologists asks anthropologists to sign a pledge as a way of saying that “anthropologists should not engage in research and other activities that contribute to counter-insurgency operations in Iraq or in related theaters in the “war on terror.””
The site has a list of background reading on this complex ethical issue at:
http://concerned.anthropologists.googlepages.com/articles
Many of the linked articles are freely available; the other journals (such as Anthropology Today and Anthropology News) are subscribed to by UBC Library, so as long as you’re on campus or using the VPN you will be able to access them.