NGOs – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

Canada Imports the White Helmets from Syria: A Dangerous, Criminal Decision

Did Canadians get to vote on whether or not to bring potential terrorists or supporters of terrorists to Canada? No. Will Canadians get a say in where these potentially dangerous men will be settled? Highly unlikely. Ninety-eight members of the White Helmets, and a few hundred of their families, were evacuated by Israel and allies […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Encircling Empire: Report #26 — Reviewing Force Multipliers

This and previous issues have been archived on a dedicated site—please see: ENCIRCLING EMPIRE. For frequent updates, please “like” our Facebook page and/or follow on Twitter. Over the period of a month, from October to November of this year, an experiment was attempted: to deliver an extended “lecture” via Zero Anthropology and its Twitter and […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Military Capitalism

Security for US Capitalists: The State Department and its Global Partners Very much in line in with the idea of “connected capitalism,” the US State Department created the office of advisor for global partnerships, a Senate-confirmed position (Stavridis & Farkas, 2012, p. 17; see also DoS, 2015, 2015/3/12). The Secretary of State’s Office of Global […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

The “Science” of Global Domination

While it is an odd mix of physics, biology, and geometry that has captured the communications strategy of military planners, the messages themselves are very telling about how such planners go about envisioning US global domination, and the parts to be played by others in assuring that dominance. Some thus speak about the “center of […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

About Those Good Intentions

The following, the final in our series of extracts, comes 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. This section was primarily addressed to students as readers, and any constructive feedback would be appreciated. […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Iatrogenic Imperialism

The following is an extract from Émile St-Pierre’s chapter, “Iatrogenic Imperialism: NGOs and CROs as Agents of Questionable Care,” published in Good Intentions: Norms and Practices of Imperial Humanitarianism (Montreal: Alert Press, 2014), pp. 37-55: Overview: Émile St-Pierre examines the role of NGOs and Contract Research Organizations (CROs) in the formation and propagation of a […]

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 Maximilian C. Forte

New Book: Good Intentions (Norms and Practices of Imperial Humanitarianism)

Good Intentions: Norms and Practices of Imperial Humanitarianism is the fourth volume in the New Imperialism series published by Alert Press, and it has just been released in hardcover, paperback, and in a couple of free versions online (a simple PDF, a bookmarked PDF [also here], or individual chapter files as below). In addition, over […]

by Brendan Stone

Colonial Feminism, Liberal “Progress,” and the Weakness of the Left

[Max Forte: Welcome to Brendan Stone who, along with Donnchadh Mac an Ghoill, joins ZA as a writer.] In view of Quebec’s Charter debate, the resurgence of discussions of the burqa and the niqab, and the continuing stories in the Western press of women’s oppression in Afghanistan, readers may be interested in this update of a paper written in […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Decolonize Human Rights

Human Rights and Humanitarian Imperialism in Syria: A View From an African American Defender of Human Rights by Ajamu Baraka First published by Ajamu Baraka on October 1, 2012; reproduced here from Black Agenda Report. As the corporate media beat the drums of war with Syria, led this time by CNN and the New York […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Getting It Right: Hugo Chávez and the “Arab Spring”

Some opening vignettes might set the right tone for properly appreciating the question of “who was right” about the so-called Arab Spring. (The notion of there having been an “Arab Spring,” a term first coined by U.S. neoconservatives such as Charles Krauthammer back in 2005, is one that has been subject to radically diverse interpretations, […]

by John Stanton

UK NGO Seeks U.S. Army Funding: Somalia Opportunity, Shadow Anthropology

“I recognize that this two year project, which overtly maps rural communities, trade connections and key local stakeholders with pastoralists around Hargesisa and Berbera, could be used as a resource for building Human Terrain Maps of this critical region of the Horn of Africa. We would be happy to do this in partnerships with [you]… […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

American Anthropologists against Counterinsurgency: Part Two

On 04 December, 2007, I posted the first part of this review of postings collected on the blog dedicated to the statement issued by the Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association. The original statement issued by the Executive Board was released on 31 October, 2007. In this second part, long delayed, I will review […]