The Pentagon is pulling out all the stops in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is sending “mine-resistant, ambush-protected” vehicles into the battlefield. It is also using cutting-edge biometric technologies to identify insurgents. But that is not all. The US military has developed a new programme known as the Human Terrain System (HTS) to study social groups in Iraq and Afghanistan. The HTS depends heavily on the co-operation of anthropologists, with their expertise in the study of human beings and their societies.
Steve Fondacaro, a retired special operations colonel overseeing the HTS, is keen to recruit cultural anthropologists.
But very few anthropologists in the US are willing to wear a uniform and receive the mandatory weapons training. In fact, a group known as the Network of Concerned Anthropologists has already circulated a pledge of non-participation in the Pentagon’s counter-insurgency efforts.
The HTS currently includes six teams embedded in military units at the brigade and division levels in Iraq and Afghanistan. Each team is composed of at least one social scientist, usually an anthropologist, a language specialist, and retired army personnel or reservists from special operations, intelligence, and civil affairs backgrounds.
Winning the trust of the indigenous populations “is at the heart of the struggle between coalition forces and the insurgents,” job advertisement for field anthropologists emphasises.
Last year, the largest professional organisation, the American Anthropological Association (AAA), called for an end to the Iraq war. Since then, AAA has set up a national commission to review the involvement of anthropologists in national security work.
Many anthropologists in the US consider it unethical to work with the HTS teams. They are worried about the potential risks to the human subjects of their studies.
A vocal critic, Roberto Gonzalez, professor of anthropology at San Jose State University, accuses the Pentagon of trying to, as he puts it, “weaponise” anthropology. He believes that HTS units are likely to operate “as full-blown counterinsurgency teams akin to what the British employed in the colonies over a half-century ago”.
Col Fondacaro believes that since the Vietnam War, many social scientists in the US have been alienated from government service and he acknowledges that recruiting a qualified social scientist is a significant challenge.
For Montgomery McFate, a main architect of the HTS, anthropologists’ “unique set of skills, methodologies and perspectives” are key. She rejects the criticism that she is trying to “militarise” anthropology but rather “anthropologise” the Pentagon.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has authorised $40 million to expand the HTS. The US Central Command (Centcom) is looking to increase the programme’s number of teams in Iraq and Afghanistan from six to 28.
According to Col Fondacaro, the new teams will be larger; they will have nine members, including two social scientists. The programme, which was being tested on a small scale, is now set to expand very quickly despite the strong objections of many anthropologists.
NYT
