Another article glossing over the significance of soft power for the easier-to-comprehend (and market) horrors (fascination?) of physical violence.
For those unfamiliar with HTS
Since 2007, the Pentagon’s Human Terrain System (HTS) has been placing social scientists in every Army combat brigade, regiment and Marine Corps regimental combat team. There are now more than 500 people employed by HTS, a number that is increasing rapidly. On the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, their job is to gather information and provide commanders with a greater understanding of the local population, reducing the need for lethal force by helping the Army determine the needs of the community
There’s no surprise that the AAA has come out against HTS in an attempt to distance anthropology further from its colonial legacy. But, although I haven’t clearly defined my own position regarding the program, my view of social theory as a tool for action has me nodding softly in agreement with Montgomery McFate, the senior social scientist at HTS and a trained anthropologist, “the discipline has become hermetically sealed within its ivory tower.” I’d much rather have thinking (and feeling) soldiers in the field. I’m most concerned – and worried – about the latter capacity, though. That and the fact that the program remains in ethical purgatory.
And what of the confidentiality of information gathered in the theater by social scientists? Some have come forward to reveal (unsurprisingly) they don’t have full control over their intel and that their work may be used to better target the enemy – a gross violation of the AAA oath to do no harm. One HTS anthropologist sees no problem with this, however.
One Human Terrain anthropologist told the Dallas Morning News that she wasn’t worried if the information she provided was used to kill or capture an insurgent. “The reality is, there are people out there who are looking for bad guys to kill,” she said. “I’d rather they did not operate in a vacuum.”
I might agree with this if I actually believed the US was anointed with the righteousness of God to do whatever the fuck they wanted. But I don’t believe in God, and I also don’t believe that every action we take is OK just because we decide to take it. Ethnocentrism is a tough pill to swallow.
In spite of this, there’s a part of me that thinks HTS is a good idea. But to be honest, I don’t know enough about it to make up my mind entirely. I know I have yet to hear a convincing argument for it, except for the claim that it reduces violent clashes, which I haven’t actually seen documented anywhere (sorry if I don’t take an unnamed Army colonel’s word for it). Thoughts?
Read more: Should Anthropologists Be Embedded with Troops in War? – TIME
Tagged: anthropology, ethics, hts, war