IMF – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

The World Changed Overnight

The European Union is now to be written as a postscript. Thanks to British voters, who were given an extremely rare chance to have a say on one of the biggest issues affecting their lives, who were allowed a rare vote on the fate of globalization and neoliberal practice, we are treated to the celebration […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Globalization: Beyond Discontent

On Stiglitz, Joseph E. (2003). Globalization and its Discontents. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. “Today, globalization is being challenged around the world….for millions of people globalization has not worked. Many have actually been made worse off, as they have seen their jobs destroyed and their lives become more insecure. They have felt increasingly powerless […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Force Multipliers and Stealth Imperialism

The force multiplier mechanism is not just something envisioned in military writing, but is instead a cornerstone of US intervention, both overt and covert. The CIA uses the term “disruption” when referring to the covert support of allied agencies who aid the CIA in the capture of so-called “terrorists”—collaborating security forces in other countries then […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

US Sovereignty and Economic Exceptionalism

The following is an extract from Karine Perron’s chapter, “The International Economic Sovereignty of the United States of America: Integrating the Exception to our Understanding of Empire,” published in Good Intentions: Norms and Practices of Imperial Humanitarianism (Montreal: Alert Press, 2014), pp. 105-120: Overview: Karine Perron addresses the scope of US capacity to influence and […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Civil Society, NGOs, and Saving the Needy: Imperial Neoliberalism

The following is an extract from my chapter, “Imperial Abduction Lore and Humanitarian Seduction,” which serves as the introduction to Good Intentions: Norms and Practices of Imperial Humanitarianism (Montreal: Alert Press, 2014), pp. 1-34: Outsourcing Empire, Privatizing State Functions: NGOs First, we need to get a sense of the size and scope of the spread […]

by Brendan Stone

Regime Change: 10 Things You Need to Know about Ukraine

1. The U.S. government, through Victoria Nuland, was caught interfering directly in Ukraine’s politics. Her “fuck the EU” phone call demonstrates the high level of U.S. State Department involvement. Our media focused largely on the negative PR caused by the “fuck the EU” comment, but skirted around the content of the phone call. The widely-leaked conversation featured […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

What is the society you are dreaming of?

What is the society you are dreaming of? “A society where you are able to survive.” “To be able to survive, not only me, but everyone.” Survival, as a dream. Talk about being reduced to “bare life,” where even Doctors without Borders comes in and declares there is a humanitarian crisis in Athens itself, and […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Landscapes of Emergency

Landscapes of Emergency is the title of a new short documentary film by Ross Domoney, produced by a Sussex Anthropology project on Public Order in Athens that has just been released. It provides a look at securitization, the imposition of a state of emergency on Greece in the wake of various efforts to control dissent and impose […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Libya: The Second Anniversary of a Bloody Coup

This weekend, marking the second anniversary of the start of protests that would usher in a bloody and prolonged NATO-led coup to overthrow the Libyan Jamahiriya and Muammar Gaddafi, offers many reasons to celebrate for those whose intention was the demolition of Libyan self-determination, African integration, and a domestic system of extensive social welfare and […]