Department of Defense – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

WikiLeaks and Julian Assange: The Duty to Expose War Crimes

On Thursday, April 25, 2019, I had the honour of participating in two separate radio interviews concerning the case of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. The first was with Glen Ford of Black Agenda Radio, and the second was with Chris Cook of “Gorilla Radio” at CFUV 101.9 FM—both of the sound files are available below. […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Realism or Iconography? The Pentagon’s Implicit Theory of Visual Representation

The following is an extract from my chapter, “A Flickr of Militarization: Photographic Regulation, Symbolic Consecration, and the Strategic Communication of ‘Good Intentions’,” published in Good Intentions: Norms and Practices of Imperial Humanitarianism (Montreal: Alert Press, 2014), pp. 185-279: US military documents make it quite clear that, for the military, a photograph is a straightforward, […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

The Visual Imperium

The following is an extract from my chapter, “A Flickr of Militarization: Photographic Regulation, Symbolic Consecration, and the Strategic Communication of ‘Good Intentions’,” published in Good Intentions: Norms and Practices of Imperial Humanitarianism (Montreal: Alert Press, 2014), pp. 185-279: One of the possibly more fruitful areas of inquiry to come out of studies of contemporary […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Pentagon Photography and Visual Anthropology

Could it be any more obvious how the Pentagon has learned to mimic certain styles of anthropological photography as shown in the instance above? Resembling any of a vast number of photographs of or by anthropologists, such as famous ones of Bronislaw Malinowski and Margaret Mead “in the field,” this one also features the note-taking […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Encircling Empire: Report #19—Militainment

Encircling Empire Reports is a selection of essays, blog posts, and news reports covering a given time period, providing links and representative extracts or key passages from each resource, usually focusing on certain countries/continents and/or processes in each report. The focus of the reports ranges from imperialism discussed in broad strokes, to specific facets of […]

by John Stanton

HTS’ MAP HT Failure: People Not Being Paid, MAP HT Cost Overrruns

“It would seem that the U.S. Army TRADOC Command has entered a time warp. They have dusted off the files on CORDS and the old FAO program. The new COIN manual and doctrine are the Holy Grail! The message being sent is this: Use COIN or else!” The HTS Program Manager was scheduled to make […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

What are the Pentagon’s Minerva Researchers Doing?

(This post comes thanks to some leads on the James Petras website and Petras’ own essay on the Minerva Research Initiative, “Procuring Academics for Empire: The Pentagon Minerva Research Initiative“.) In late December of 2008 I posted about the news of the first recipients of the Pentagon’s Minerva Research Initiative, but until I saw the […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Announcement of first awards under the Pentagon’s Minerva Program

Thanks to David Glenn at the Chronicle of Higher Education (“Pentagon Announces First Grants in Disputed Social-Science Program,” 23 December 2008), I learned of today’s announcement from the Pentagon of the first seven awards to be made to social science projects that applied under the Minerva Research Initiative. The Pentagon also announced that it had […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Latest Minerva and National Science Foundation News

Thanks to David Glenn of The Chronicle of Higher Education for writing to indicate that what some hoped for would be leeway in undertaking funded research free of constraints and conditions imposed by the Department of Defense, has been significantly minimized. As David Glenn explained, the National Science Foundation released its Minerva-related solicitation on Wednesday, […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

More Minerva News and Discussion (2.1)

David Glenn, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 30, 2008 Minerva Takes Flesh: Pentagon and Science Foundation Sign Social-Science Deal In a memorandum of understanding that was signed today, the Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation agreed to work cooperatively to support social-science research on topics of interest to the Pentagon. As widely expected, […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

National Security Research, Imperialist Emergencies and the Minerva Research Initiative: Some Further Consideration (1.1)

For this post I am once more referring to the contents of this document, just released by the U.S. Department of Defense, soliciting proposals for grants under the Minerva Research Initiative (MRI). The following is a series of topics of concern raised by this document. HOW TO MAKE IMPERIAL RESEARCH INSIDIOUS: On page 2 we […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Minerva Project Now Official and Ready to Begin (1.1)

[Note that the official document discussed below can be downloaded from here (pdf).] The Minerva Research Initiative (MRI) has now become official and is ready to begin accepting grant proposals. Proposals are being accepted for projects that address any of the following areas (with a detailed breakdown of each area provided in the document linked […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

The United States’ Colonial Armed Forces: “Un-American” Troops? (1.2)

It has long been the contention of Immanuel Wallerstein, among others, that one of the cost-effective ways of maintaining an empire is to get the colonized to colonize themselves. That is obviously a simple rendition of a long history. Yet let us note that the British Empire engaged in warfare with the help of the […]