winning hearts and minds – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

The Babysitter

Big Chief, Big Daddy, Big Babysitter to the World If “winning hearts and minds” is at the top of your global campaign agenda for strategic communication, then you need to insert yourself into some of the most intimate, domestic, and familial places of restive, hungry, and increasingly angry populations. Getting all domestic is what the […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Whose Hearts and Minds?

Notes from: Big strategy founders on corruption and tribalism Hearts, minds and the same old warlords Go up close to what’s happening in Afghanistan – for example, in the city of Kandahar – and you find crime, corruption, tribal conflict and ordinary people powerless to resist the armed might of the militias. No happy ending […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

McFate: “Does good anthropology contribute to better killing?”

Anthropology, Human Terrain’s Prehistory, and the Role of Culture in Wars Waged by Robots: From “Gentle Pursuasion” to “Better Killing” David Price CounterPunch, vol. 16, no. 17, Oct. 1-15, 2009, pages 1, 4-6. In the current print edition of CounterPunch, distributed to subscribers, David Price provides us with a very valuable in-depth look at the […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Afghanistan’s Eighth Anniversary with Another Crumbling Empire

While no doubt some Afghans will be celebrating the continued, lucrative, presence of another empire in their midst, and the momentary protection offered by armies from 42 nations, others will be celebrating the fact that under their sustained and expanding fire another empire grinds noisily into its eighth year of failure. At the moment, the […]