Glevum Associates – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

In Afghanistan: Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see me?

Come On, Show Me that Smile! One has to wonder if NATO military planners and officers in the field are just slightly insane with frustration, or simply have a perverse sense of humour. In this BBC story, British troops armed to the teeth enter a compound in darkness en masse, scaring the little children, and […]

by John Stanton

Defense Contractors from Dante’s Circles of Hell: Sequel to Human Terrain System I?

As of 11 October 2010, 23 contractors had expressed an interest in running the US Army’s Human Terrain System and getting a share, or all, of the $7 million that comes with a contract award. Within that group of 23 contractors are some that have already had extensive experience with the US Army’s Human Terrain […]

by John Stanton

Sources Sought to Run Human Terrain System: Insiders Glevum and McNeil Technologies in the Hunt

“The need now is to get a decent contracting company in there that is actually focused on the job and they just might prove some worth as a force multiplier.” On 22 September 2010 The U.S. Army Contracting Command Center at Fort Eustis posted a Sources Sought request (fbo.gov) to support the U.S. Army Human […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Andrew Garfield’s Commercial Plea for War Research, and the Reality of Ethics in Human Terrain Teams

Two very different, but related, items have been published online this past week, related to the Human Terrain System and embedding anthropologists/social scientists in counterinsurgency. The first one I mention–unsurprisingly published by the Small Wars “Journal” –is written by Andrew Garfield of Glevum Associates, a private defense contractor that we have encountered here many times […]

by John Stanton

Human Terrain Teams Feared More than CIA: John Stanton

Human Terrain Teams Feared more than CIA: Cureton Blinded for Life, Laurie Adler Returns by John Stanton 12 May 2010 …You have no sense about the intriguing world of intelligence gathering! I am dead scared of a Peace Corps…Team wanting to help a strategically important country affected by a natural disaster [rather] than a CIA […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Mapping the Terrain of War Corporatism: The Human Terrain System within the Military-Industrial-Academic Complex

UPDATED: 03 March 2010; 17 March 2010; 19 March 2010; 22 March 2010; 26 April 2010; 03 June 2010; 05 June 2010; 30 November 2010; 10 June 2011; 30 September 2011; 03 March 2013 At least 37 corporations have vested interests, through contracts gained, in supporting the U.S. Army’s Human Terrain System (HTS) in particular, […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Reality Check for the Human Terrain System: Marilyn Dudley-Flores Responds

Introduction On 26 February 2009, a report by John Stanton was published on this blog (Some Breaking News on the Human Terrain System: Death Threats Against Female Colleagues). At the time it caused some uproar, was discussed on several other blogs, and perhaps no other story on this blog received so many comments as that […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Public Propaganda, The Human Terrain System, and Staged Democracy in Afghanistan

Some interesting reports have surfaced over the past three weeks concerning initiatives with links to the U.S. Army’s Human Terrain System (HTS), along with reports about control exercised over U.S. journalists, both of which come under the rubric of public propaganda (what proponents call “public diplomacy” and others call “strategic communications”). Gary Langer of ABC […]