One of the nice things about being a pessimistic romantic is that one can still have a sense of wonder about everyday things.  That sense of wonder kicked in again today upon reading a very nice, plain English exposition by Cobalt on why Anthropologists working with the US military can be unethical (actual, “a dick”; [...]

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Galrahn over at Information Dissemination, just produced another brilliant piece on the realities of 21st century networks called The Challenges of the 21st Century Conversation.  While the subject of the post is US Naval “evangelists” (”Champions” in business terms), the post itself examines the complex interplay between narrative, myth, discourse control and the role of [...]

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“The question comes down to how we can as artists make the case to Canadians that the arts deserves healthy vigorous funding,” S. Randy Boyagoda, a novelist and a professor of literature based at Ryerson University, said on Thursday.
Source CBC.ca
Canada seems to have a love-hate relationship with the Arts.  On the one hand, certain arts [...]

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In a recent blog entry, Matt Armstrong draws on the recent thread on Information Operations at SWC and on some of my posts on the topic and, towards the end, asks some really good questions.

are we simply recreating stove-pipes?
Is IO strategic, operational, or tactical?
Where does IO, for example fit in with Countering Ideological Support for [...]

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In my last post, I laid out what I consider to be the start of developing a theory of Information Operations (IO). Most of that post deals with an attempt to crate a definition of IO. In the end, the definition I came up with was
Information Operations are a) actions taken by actors, [...]

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The (potential) role of Anthropology operating with the military has been a topic of rather heated discussion for some time. In some cases, the reactions by Anthropologists have been close to witch hunts, while in other cases they have been quite positive. The latest foo-forah comes with the revelation that Montgomery McFate may [...]

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I just finished reading two interesting pieces - one by Sam Lisles called Education Paradigm and the other by Matthew Reisz called Hits and Misses. Both deal with crucial questions about what is “scholarship” and “education”, albeit from quite different angles, and what reciprocal effects exist between society and the education system.
Reisz’s piece concentrates [...]

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An interesting article by Lt. Col. John A. Nagl and Lt. Col. Paul L. Yingling titled “New Rules for new enemies” was posted in the October issue of Armed Forces Journal.  Part of their argument centers around a requirement to restructure the organizational culture of the US army.
To win the Long War, the Army must [...]

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Over the past six months or so, I have been doing a lot of thinking about the process of professionalization.  In its simplest form, the process involves a set of tasks being “set aside” by a state organization and a monopoly on their practice being granted to a specific group - a “professional organization” - [...]

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