secrecy – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

Why did the Left Fail the Covid Test So Badly?

Note: Contrary to this site’s policy of not republishing work from other sites, which has been in effect for several years, this exception is a must. It is almost impossible for me to find something with which I agree so thoroughly, and what follows is the rarest of exceptions. It consists of exactly what I […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

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

The WikiLeaks Case: Democracy Dies in Empire

In the avalanche of news reports that have washed over the globe since the abduction of Julian Assange, this conversation struck me as containing numerous points of importance. It seemed worthwhile to have some of these points transcribed and listed here. If you have seen it, then the select transcriptions beneath the video might serve […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

(New Book) Force Multipliers: The Instrumentalities of Imperialism

From ALERT PRESS: Click here to order a printed copy, or, Click here for the free e-book (pdf) Friends and allies, partners and protégés, extensions and proxies—the vocabulary of US power in the form of multiples of itself has become so entrenched that it rarely attracts attention, and even less so critical commentary. Force multiplication […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

The Real World of Democracy (and Anthropology)

Review essay, Part 2 (see Part 1) Referring to the process by which he studied Cuban democracy, August explicitly refers to it as “ethnographic research” (p. xiii). This is an important point, because he was trained as a political scientist in Montreal, but he is producing the kind of book that no anthropologist has offered, […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Which States? Which Secrets? Secrets from Whom?

From the journal of the World Policy Institute comes “The Big Question“ for its Fall issue on Secrecy and Security. I have maintained a research interest in the area of the anthropology of secrecy, and understandings of power in connection with secrecy in both anthropological theory and in the work of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks (more to come […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Anthropology, Secrecy, and Wikileaks

[This is the third and final article in a series of three about Wikileaks. The first was “The Wikileaks Revolution” that led to a parallel article published in CounterPunch. The second one was “Wikileaks and the Moral Dualism of the U.S. State Department.”] “I,______, in the Presence of the Mighty Ones, do of my own free […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Secrecy and Anthropology

From Inside Higher Ed, Dec. 3, 2007: With debate over the role of anthropologists in aiding the military machine a theme threading through their annual meeting, scholars voted Friday to demand that the American Anthropological Association reinstate strict language from its 1971 code of ethics prohibiting secret research. Members at the meeting – who, for […]