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Security for Whom? Anthropologists and Repressive State Elites

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Security for Whom? Anthropologists and Repressive State Elites Security for whom? Anthropologists and repressive state elites Gustavo Lins Ribeiro Abstract: The most important political and ethical issues in North American anthropology today concern anthropologists’ relationships with the “security and intelligence communities.” The call for anthropological participation in warfare has never been so intense, yet recruitment of anthropologists is not new for hegemonic anthropologies. Their relationships with state power have a long history of contradictory political and professional engagements. After a brief discussion of the notion of national security and its intimate relations to nation- state projects and elites, I consider the importance of culture and anthropological knowledge for politicians and conclude first that anthropologists need to be aware of how the discipline and its uses are part of much larger power relations and constraints, and second that anthropological knowledge is already always po- litical. Keywords: anthropologists and the military, anthropology and power, national security and anthropological practice, uses of anthropological knowledge One of the most pressing political and ethical for “low intensity counterinsurgency opera- issues in North American anthropology today tions where civilians mingle freely with combat- concerns the relationships anthropologists have ants in complex urban terrain” (McFate 2005: with the “security and intelligence communi- 24). The new imperial wars prompted the inter- ties.”1 The intensity of these relationships has est of the U.S. military in “understanding peo- increased after 9/11, because the cultural turn ple their culture and motivation” (Major has now reached even the Pentagon. According General Robert H. Scales, Jr., quoted by McFate, to Montgomery McFate, an anthropologist who 2005: 24). Another important representative of strongly defends the involvement of anthropol- the security community, the Director of the ogists with the military and who is the author Office of Force Transformation, concluded that of a chapter of the new U.S. Army counterinsur- “knowledge of one’s enemy and his culture and gency manual (released in December 2006), the society may be more important than knowledge war in Afghanistan and Iraq proved that “tradi- of his order of battle” (McFate 2005: 24). Once tional methods of warfighting” were inadequate again, it became clear that understanding cul- Focaal—European Journal of Anthropology 50 (2007): 146–154 doi:10.3167/foc.2007.500111 Anthropologists and repressive state elites 147 ture is important when there is a great disparity with the military. For them, the presence of of power among adversaries, especially when anthropologists would make war less destruc- non-Western parties are involved (McFate tive and lethal because many fatal mistakes are 2005). “Friends” need to be identified and the result of cultural misunderstandings. hearts and minds need to be won (McFate The call for anthropological participation in 2005). warfare is more intense than ever, but for hege- This renewed interest in culture was followed monic anthropologies the predicaments that by practical initiatives. The Pat Roberts Intelli- arise when anthropologists are recruited are not gence Scholars Program (PRISP) is a govern- new. Their relationships with state power have mental program established in 2004 to recruit a long history of contradictory political and analysts into the U.S. intelligence community. professional engagements. It is well known that The PRISP resurrected a phantom that histori- anthropologists have participated in colonial cally has haunted anthropologists located in the and war efforts before, although such participa- hegemonic centers of the discipline: the confu- tions were hardly consensual (with the possible sion of field research with espionage (see Gus- exception of World War II). terson and Price 2005). In 2005, the PRISP Perhaps it is possible to say that most anthro- had “with little notice placed over 150 student pologists currently lean toward the progressive participants in an unknown number of univer- camp. Cultural critique and a respect for differ- sity classrooms” (Gusterson and Price 2005: ences among people are basic to anthropology; 39). At the same time that PRISP outsources these concepts most likely encourage progres- the intelligence community’s training programs sive tendencies. Anthropologists, however, have to the universities, its “students’ identities are never been a homogeneous political body his- not publicly announced as they undertake their torically. Politically conservative anthropolo- studies in university classrooms” (Gusterson gists are more inclined to work for repressive and Price 2005). Other similar programs have and manipulative elites than are progressive an- emerged recently, such as the Intelligence Com- thropologists. There are also anthropologists munity Scholars Program, in which “scholars who would claim that they are able to walk a have to repay the costs of their education plus line independent of any political position. The penalties...ifthey decide not to work for US current discussion on anthropological practice intelligence upon graduation” (Gusterson and and national security resonates with other de- Price 2005), Gusterson and Price consider this bates about applied anthropology. Are security to be a form of debt bondage. anthropologists’ dilemmas and certainties simi- In response to the serious implications of lar to those development anthropologists had these initiatives the American Anthropological met with before? These questions recall the Association (AAA) created an Ad Hoc Commis- long-standing quandaries about the academic sion on the Engagement of Anthropology with practice of anthropology and what some call the U.S. Security and Intelligence Communities its extramural (notice the defensive and isola- in 2006. At the 2006 AAA meeting, sessions tionist connotations of the adjective) activities. were organized to debate the problem and two resolutions were approved in a historic business meeting. One condemned the occupation of National security and anthropological Iraq. The other condemned the use of torture. practice The 2006 meeting also revealed the existence of “security anthropologists.” These are anthro- National security is a complex subject. The defi- pologists who work for the military establish- nition of security revolves around the meaning ment and who, in one of the meeting’s session, of different kinds of violence and whether they proudly defended their jobs as consultants as are considered legitimate or not. The security well as the need for anthropologists to engage of my block is one thing; the security of my 148 Gustavo Lins Ribeiro city and country is another. The definition of citizenship. It is a field that includes, for in- security involves a sense of belonging, of identi- stance, university systems, science and technol- fying with a collectivity, of protecting “us” ogy policies, and the role of intellectuals in against “them.” In short, it involves identity nation building and nationalism. Historically, issues. The larger the collectivity involved, the the relations between citizens and nation-states more complicated the issue gets. When it comes vary according to different political and ideo- to national security, matters become highly logical junctures. The relationships between an- complex. This is the realm of the nation-state. thropological practice and national security It is comprised of two entities that are interre- vary accordingly. At the same time, anthropolo- lated but not homologous to each other. The gists, as a collectivity, have their own political fabric of the nation is much more diverse than diversity and their own disciplinary histories that of the state. For instance, children cannot and trends, which result in preferred ways of be state officials and several “minorities” are representing the profession. This is why underrepresented within state apparatuses. Na- involvement with war may be accepted in one tion-states are complex polities, made up of historical juncture and repudiated in another. historically defined economic, political, cul- The possible roles of anthropologists in na- tural, and social arrangements. In spite of the tional security also vary according to nation- diversity of their sociological assemblages, na- states’ power within the world system. It is one tion-states tend to be homogeneity machines, thing to be an anthropologist in an imperial especially when nationalism—the main prod- country, it is another to work in a country uct of their identity and ideology—is at stake. where power imbalances among anthropolo- Nationalism relates in different ways to national gists and their research subjects are structured by internal colonialism. “Counterinsurgency security and to the reproduction of state elites. consulting,” for instance, the “latest phase in The consideration of a nation-state’s specific the weaponization of anthropology” (Gonzales characteristics is mandatory for the study of 2007: 19), would be unthinkable to anthropolo- national security. The fact that “national secu- gists in Brazil, where the most delicate ethical rity” varies according to different historical issues concern the activities of a handful of junctures and according to different ideologies anthropologists aligned with developmentalist that state elites follow over time only confirms initiatives that are contested by native popula- my assertion that it is a complex subject. tions. Covert
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