ASA Globalog

The role of social scientists and their involvement in government counterinsurgency programmes has been recently in the news. Particularly, the role of anthropological engagements with military and intelligence agencies has been widely reported (please see the links). Experiments carried out by the Pentagon through the ‘human terrain’ programme have attempted to embed anthropologists in combat units in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not without historical precedents, this harks back to some of the colonial roots of anthropology as a discipline which itself has undergone intense disciplinary criticism. It also seems to return anthropology to the days of the Project Camelot of the 1960s. This issue has been intensely debated at the recent (November 2007) annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and in its Final report the AAA Commission on the Engagement of Anthropology with the US Security and Intelligence Communities states:

The Commission recognizes both opportunities and risks to those anthropologists choosing to engage with the work of the military, security and intelligence arenas. We do not recommend non-engagement, but instead emphasize differences in kinds of engagement and accompanying ethical considerations. We advise careful analysis of specific roles, activities, and institutional contexts of engagement in order to ascertain ethical consequences. These ethical considerations begin with the admonition to do no harm to those one studies (or with whom one works, in an applied setting) and to be honest and transparent in communicating what one is doing. Given this framework, we offer procedural recommendations to AAA designed to address current and future issues, to foster civil and open discussion of them, and to offer guidance to individual anthropologists who might consider such work.

Within Europe the role of funding bodies and the ever increasing programmes and funds available to work on Islam, religious leaders, Muslim youths also does not seem coincidental. The Network of Concerned Anthropologists have already drafted a Pledge of Non-participation in Counter-insurgency and are seeking to draft an International version of this pledge which will be posted on this blog to trigger discussion. This is because the issue of government counter insurgency programmes is not only limited to the US and Western Europe. In different parts of the world, varied geopolitical concerns have been woven with issues relating to the  ‘war on terror’ in various national and international contexts.  Prof. David Price, one of the authors of the Counterinsurgency Pledge and the earlier mentioned Final Report of the AAA will introduce the blog and overall ten bloggers [Rahnuma Ahmed (Anthropology, Dhaka, Bangladesh), Irfan Ahmad (Anthropology, ISIM, Leiden), Anjan Ghosh (Anthropology, Centre for  Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata, India), Kriti Kapila (Anthropology, Cambridge U), Nancy Lindisfarne (Anthropology, SOAS), Filippo and Caroline Osella (Anthropology, Sussex U and SOAS), David Price (Anthropology, Saint Martin’s U, Washington), Subir Sinha (Development Studies, SOAS), Jonathan Spencer (Anthropology, Edinburgh U), Rashmi Verma (English, Warwick U)] will address, raise questions about many of the themes mentioned. This is an issue of immense significance which not only addresses contemporary concerns but raises questions about academic and intellectual integrity in the light of the not so distant dark pasts of the discipline of anthropology. It is important to add that in this context, the role of other social sciences like sociology, politics and international relations, religious studies, geography etc is also significant. We are hopeful that this would not only raise questions among anthropologists but also draw other social scientists to post their comments and engage in the discussion for the next two months, till around the middle of March 2008.

We look forward to your participation in this discussion.

Nayanika Mookherjee
Ethics Officer, ASA (Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth)