soft power – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

Goodbye “American Greatness”

Part 3 of 5 of the COVID-19 Series. Indispensable. Here was the so-called “indispensable nation,” the self-appointed saviour of the world, with generations of its leaders and thinkers thinking, speaking, and writing as if God had appointed “America” to lead the world. A world without America, we were told by Americans, would be so much […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Donald Trump, Empire, and Globalization: A Reassessment

“Hey, I’m a nationalist and a globalist,” Donald Trump recently declared, “I’m both”. The only way in which the two (seemingly contradictory) positions can be reconciled is by introducing a third term, one that is absent from Trump’s vocabulary: imperialism. Trump might not be conscious of the implication of his statement (nor would he be […]

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

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

Just Released: The New Imperialism, Vol. 1: Militarism, Humanism, and Occupation

The New Imperialism is the title of an annual seminar which I offer at Concordia University to advanced undergraduates. It is an unusual course, and given the content of past student evaluations, one that is extremely popular with participants who unanimously rated it as excellent on all levels. Part of the reason might be that there […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Coming soon on Al Jazeera.net

Starting next month, I will be joining Al Jazeera as the author of a series of monthly columns, beginning with articles on issues raised here, dealing with soft power, social media, digital activism, and almost certainly something about the Minerva Research Initiative and the Human Terrain System. I am very thankful to Al Jazeera’s editors […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Interviewed Today on Al Jazeera: Social Media, Soft Power, and American Empire

Al Jazeera Arabic invited me to participate in its hour-long program, In Depth (19 April 2010; 3:00-4:00pm EST), and I was happy to do so via satellite earlier this evening, hosted by Ali Al-Dafiri, with my fellow guest, Mohamad Takriti. One of the main topics that the host of the program, Ali Al-Dafiri, asked me […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

“Led by the military, war-weary US awakens to ‘soft power'”

Another news article today, that might help to further contextualize the piece appearing below this post: WASHINGTON (AFP) – After six hard years of war, the United States is awakening to the idea that “soft power” is a better way to regain influence and clout in a world bubbling with instability. And nowhere is the […]