Understanding the War on Terror from a Sociological/Anthropological Perspective

<strong>Centre for the Study of Social Systems School of Social Sciences </strong> <strong>CSSS Colloquium </strong> <strong>Dr. Felix Padel</strong> (Anthropologist/Sociologist, Oxford University) a talk on <strong>Understanding the War on Terror from a Sociological/Anthropological Perspective: The significance of Kurdish and other Indigenous &amp; Democratic Movements</strong> Date : <strong>October 1, 2015</strong> <strong>Abstract:</strong> Terrorism and insurgency are presently popular subjects to analyse sociologically, but cannot be understood without clear analysis of the social structure and behaviour of security forces and the 'war on terror'. As the world's dominant superpower, the actions and ideology of US military forces play an extremely influential role in the behaviour of every other country's security forces, and 'counter-insurgency' in general. For example American 'exceptionalism' has institutionalised 'covert operation' attacks by drones and 'special forces' in several countries (including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen); includes a well-known history of CIA conspiracies supporting violent regime changes in many others (including Guatemala, Argentina, Indonesia....); recent direct invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and indirect/covert support for insurgencies aimed at regime change in Libya, Syria &amp; elsewhere. One result has been chronic civil war on-going in Syria, Iraq, Yemen.The role of the Kurdish democratic movement has been vastly distorted and marginalised in world media. Arguably, some understanding of movements for democracy in these and other countries, and also indigenous movements worldwide, are necessary to understand recent insurgency and 'terrorism' in India.. <strong>Bio-Data: </strong>Felix Padel is an anthropologist / sociologist trained at Oxford University, and the Delhi School of Economics, currently Visiting Professor at the North East India Studies Programme, JNU (Till December). His main books are: Sacrificing People: Invasions of a Tribal Landscape (1995/2010), Out of This Earth: East India Adivasis and the Aluminium Cartel (with Samarendra Das, 2010), and Ecology, Economy: Quest for a Socially Informed Connection. A Londoner by birth, Felix connects his work with that of his great grandfather Charles Darwin. He has published numerous articles on the Maoist issue and the war on terror since 2007 (starting with a piece in Tehelka on Bastar's civil war at <a href="http://archive.tehelka.com/story_main34.asp?filename=cr220907A_CRY.asp">http://archive.tehelka.com/story_main34.asp?filename=cr220907A_CRY.asp</a>).