NY Times, October 5, 2007
Army Enlists Anthropology in War Zones
By DAVID ROHDE
SHABAK VALLEY, Afghanistan — In this isolated Taliban stronghold in
eastern Afghanistan, American paratroopers are fielding what they
consider a crucial new weapon in counterinsurgency operations here: a
soft-spoken civilian anthropologist named Tracy.
Tracy, who asked that her surname not be used for security reasons, is a
member of the first Human Terrain Team, an experimental Pentagon program
that assigns anthropologists and other social scientists to American
combat units in Afghanistan and Iraq. Her team’s ability to understand
subtle points of tribal relations — in one case spotting a land dispute
that allowed the Taliban to bully parts of a major tribe — has won the
praise of officers who say they are seeing concrete results.
Col. Martin Schweitzer, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division unit
working with the anthropologists here, said that the unit’s combat
operations had been reduced by 60 percent since the scientists arrived
in February, and that the soldiers were now able to focus more on
improving security, health care and education for the population.
“We’re looking at this from a human perspective, from a social
scientist’s perspective,” he said. “We’re not focused on the enemy.
We’re focused on bringing governance down to the people.”
In September, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates authorized a $40 million
expansion of the program, which will assign teams of anthropologists and
social scientists to each of the 26 American combat brigades in Iraq and
Afghanistan. Since early September, five new teams have been deployed in
the Baghdad area, bringing the total to six.
Yet criticism is emerging in academia. Citing the past misuse of social
sciences in counterinsurgency campaigns, including in Vietnam and Latin
America, some denounce the program as “mercenary anthropology” that
exploits social science for political gain. Opponents fear that,
whatever their intention, the scholars who work with the military could
inadvertently cause all anthropologists to be viewed as intelligence
gatherers for the American military.
Hugh Gusterson, an anthropology professor at George Mason University,
and 10 other anthropologists are circulating an online pledge calling
for anthropologists to boycott the teams, particularly in Iraq.
“While often presented by its proponents as work that builds a more
secure world,” the pledge says, “at base, it contributes instead to a
brutal war of occupation which has entailed massive casualties.”
In Afghanistan, the anthropologists arrived along with 6,000 troops,
which doubled the American military’s strength in the area it patrols,
the country’s east.
A smaller version of the Bush administration’s troop increase in Iraq,
the buildup in Afghanistan has allowed American units to carry out the
counterinsurgency strategy here, where American forces generally face
less resistance and are better able to take risks.
A New Mantra
Since Gen. David H. Petraeus, now the overall American commander in
Iraq, oversaw the drafting of the Army’s new counterinsurgency manual
last year, the strategy has become the new mantra of the military. A
recent American military operation here offered a window into how
efforts to apply the new approach are playing out on the ground in
counterintuitive ways.
In interviews, American officers lavishly praised the anthropology
program, saying that the scientists’ advice has proved to be
“brilliant,” helping them see the situation from an Afghan perspective
and allowing them to cut back on combat operations.
The aim, they say, is to improve the performance of local government
officials, persuade tribesmen to join the police, ease poverty and
protect villagers from the Taliban and criminals.
Afghans and Western civilian officials, too, praised the anthropologists
and the new American military approach but were cautious about
predicting long-term success. Many of the economic and political
problems fueling instability can be solved only by large numbers of
Afghan and American civilian experts.
“My feeling is that the military are going through an enormous change
right now where they recognize they won’t succeed militarily,” said Tom
Gregg, the chief United Nations official in southeastern Afghanistan.
“But they don’t yet have the skill sets to implement” a coherent
nonmilitary strategy, he added.
Deploying small groups of soldiers into remote areas, Colonel
Schweitzer’s paratroopers organized jirgas, or local councils, to
resolve tribal disputes that have simmered for decades. Officers
shrugged off questions about whether the military was comfortable with
what David Kilcullen, an Australian anthropologist and an architect of
the new strategy, calls “armed social work.”
“Who else is going to do it?“ asked Lt. Col. David Woods, commander of
the Fourth Squadron, 73rd Cavalry. “You have to evolve. Otherwise you’re
useless.”
The anthropology team here also played a major role in what the military
called Operation Khyber. That was a 15-day drive late this summer in
which 500 Afghan and 500 American soldiers tried to clear an estimated
200 to 250 Taliban insurgents out of much of Paktia Province, secure
southeastern Afghanistan’s most important road and halt a string of
suicide attacks on American troops and local governors.
In one of the first districts the team entered, Tracy identified an
unusually high concentration of widows in one village, Colonel Woods
said. Their lack of income created financial pressure on their sons to
provide for their families, she determined, a burden that could drive
the young men to join well-paid insurgents. Citing Tracy’s advice,
American officers developed a job training program for the widows.
In another district, the anthropologist interpreted the beheading of a
local tribal elder as more than a random act of intimidation: the
Taliban’s goal, she said, was to divide and weaken the Zadran, one of
southeastern Afghanistan’s most powerful tribes. If Afghan and American
officials could unite the Zadran, she said, the tribe could block the
Taliban from operating in the area.
“Call it what you want, it works,” said Colonel Woods, a native of
Denbo, Pa. “It works in helping you define the problems, not just the
symptoms.”
Embedding Scholars
The process that led to the creation of the teams began in late 2003,
when American officers in Iraq complained that they had little to no
information about the local population. Pentagon officials contacted
Montgomery McFate, a Yale-educated cultural anthropologist working for
the Navy who advocated using social science to improve military
operations and strategy.
Ms. McFate helped develop a database in 2005 that provided officers with
detailed information on the local population. The next year, Steve
Fondacaro, a retired Special Operations colonel, joined the program and
advocated embedding social scientists with American combat units.
Ms. McFate, the program’s senior social science adviser and an author of
the new counterinsurgency manual, dismissed criticism of scholars
working with the military. “I’m frequently accused of militarizing
anthropology,” she said. “But we’re really anthropologizing the military.”
Roberto J. González, an anthropology professor at San Jose State
University, called participants in the program naïve and unethical. He
said that the military and the Central Intelligence Agency had
consistently misused anthropology in counterinsurgency and propaganda
campaigns and that military contractors were now hiring anthropologists
for their local expertise as well.
“Those serving the short-term interests of military and intelligence
agencies and contractors,” he wrote in the June issue of Anthropology
Today, an academic journal, “will end up harming the entire discipline
in the long run.”
Arguing that her critics misunderstand the program and the military, Ms.
McFate said other anthropologists were joining the teams. She said their
goal was to help the military decrease conflict instead of provoking it,
and she vehemently denied that the anthropologists collected
intelligence for the military.
In eastern Afghanistan, Tracy said wanted to reduce the use of
heavy-handed military operations focused solely on killing insurgents,
which she said alienated the population and created more insurgents. “I
can go back and enhance the military’s understanding,” she said, “so
that we don’t make the same mistakes we did in Iraq.”
Along with offering advice to commanders, she said, the five-member team
creates a database of local leaders and tribes, as well as social
problems, economic issues and political disputes.
Clinics and Mediation
During the recent operation, as soldiers watched for suicide bombers,
Tracy and Army medics held a free medical clinic. They said they hoped
that providing medical care would show villagers that the Afghan
government was improving their lives.
Civil affairs soldiers then tried to mediate between factions of the
Zadran tribe about where to build a school. The Americans said they
hoped that the school, which would serve children from both groups,
might end a 70-year dispute between the groups over control of a
mountain covered with lucrative timber.
Though they praised the new program, Afghan and Western officials said
it remained to be seen whether the weak Afghan government could maintain
the gains. “That’s going to be the challenge, to fill the vacuum,” said
Mr. Gregg, the United Nations official. “There’s a question mark over
whether the government has the ability to take advantage of the gains.”
Others also question whether the overstretched American military and its
NATO allies can keep up the pace of operations.
American officers expressed optimism. Many of those who had served in
both Afghanistan and Iraq said they had more hope for Afghanistan. One
officer said that the Iraqis had the tools to stabilize their country,
like a potentially strong economy, but that they lacked the will. He
said Afghans had the will, but lacked the tools.
After six years of American promises, Afghans, too, appear to be waiting
to see whether the Americans or the Taliban will win a protracted test
of wills here. They said this summer was just one chapter in a
potentially lengthy struggle.
At a “super jirga” set up by Afghan and American commanders here, a
member of the Afghan Parliament, Nader Khan Katawazai, laid out the
challenge ahead to dozens of tribal elders.
“Operation Khyber was just for a few days,” he said. “The Taliban will
emerge again.”