Page "Anthropology" Paragraph 97

Anthropologists, along with other social scientists, are working with the US military as part of the US Army's strategy in Afghanistan.

The Christian Science Monitor reports that " Counterinsurgency efforts focus on better grasping and meeting local needs " in Afghanistan, under the Human Terrain System ( HTS ) program ; in addition, HTS teams are working with the US military in Iraq.

In 2009, the American Anthropological Association's Commission on the Engagement of Anthropology with the US Security and Intelligence Communities released its final report concluding, in part, that, " When ethnographic investigation is determined by military missions, not subject to external review, where data collection occurs in the context of war, integrated into the goals of counterinsurgency, and in a potentially coercive environment – all characteristic factors of the HTS concept and its application – it can no longer be considered a legitimate professional exercise of anthropology.

In summary, while we stress that constructive engagement between anthropology and the military is possible, CEAUSSIC suggests that the AAA emphasize the incompatibility of HTS with disciplinary ethics and practice for job seekers and that it further recognize the problem of allowing HTS to define the meaning of “ anthropology ” within DoD.

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