Saturday, October 11, 2008

Understanding as Foreign Policy: Social science and Language joins the Army

In theory, giving priority to languages and social science in order to create good will in foreign relations (in this case the Iraqis), is a good idea. The military should have figured this one out a little sooner, like before getting there. It's like buying a ticket to China and figuring out years later you should have brought a guidebook and a phrasebook. Except you didn't take guns on your vacation to China.

So, they finally got the message, now they have to figure out how to integrate some relatively liberal-thinking, educated scholars who appreciate other cultures into the military. Maybe they need to hire a social scientist who can help them integrate these social scientists (anthropologists, sociologists).


Wired article

New Yorker article

New York Times article

Newsweek article

Link to discussion about ethics

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