Social Science Research Council
Knowing the Enemy
Submitted by David C. Engerman, Brandeis UniversityIn the summer of 1953, a major military-academic project came under attack on Capitol Hill. The target was Harvard University’s Refugee Interview Project, sponsored by…
Essay Archives
All Essays
January 23rd, 2009
December 30th, 2008
Building Bridges and Communities
Submitted by Dr. Tom Mahnken, Department of DefenseThe US government has always turned to the nation’s scholars and intellectuals for help in times of national crisis or emergency. Many of our most…
December 11th, 2008
The Minerva Controversy; a Cautionary Tale
Submitted by Ron Robin, New York UniversityThe Minerva initiative has elicited several warnings of creeping contamination. Hugh Gusterson describes Minerva as a lethal vector not unlike the cancer-spreading tobacco industry’s contagion…
November 19th, 2008
Minerva: Unclipping the Owl’s Wings
Submitted by Ronald R. Krebs, University of MinnesotaSecretary of Defense Robert Gates’ announcement last April of a new initiative, named Minerva, after the Roman goddess of war and wisdom and intended to…
November 14th, 2008
Minerva and Critical Public Engagement
Submitted by Robert Albro, American UniversityThere are a myriad of reasons for the social sciences to be skeptical of developing closer working relationships with the military by cashing in on…
November 10th, 2008
Scholars and Security
Submitted by Paul Bracken, Yale UniversityThe results of U.S. national security policy since 9/11 speak for themselves. There’s little point for me to throw more gasoline on this fire. My…
November 6th, 2008
The Perils of Pentagon Funding for Anthropology and the Other Social Sciences
Submitted by Catherine Lutz, The Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown UniversityThis spring, the US Department of Defense announced an initiative to put up to $18 million annually toward social science research on issues of “national…
October 29th, 2008
Minerva Research Initiative: Searching for the Truth or Denying the Iraqis the Rights to Know the Truth?
Submitted by Saad Eskander, Iraq National Library and ArchivesWhat has prompted me to write this paper is the continuing refusal of the U.S. to pay serious attention to Iraqi calls for the repatriation…
October 29th, 2008
The Military-Social Science Interface
Submitted by Ian Roxborough, Stony Brook UniversityIf social scientists are to have a more effective engagement with the military we need to understand them better. It is not enough simply to…
October 27th, 2008
Should the social sciences contribute to the art of war in the era of securitization? Or to the crafting of peace?
Submitted by Alain Joxe, École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)This paper suggests that one should pause and think before rushing to accept research programs devised by the military, especially in a period of acute…
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