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Understanding the War on Terror from a Sociological/Anthropological Perspective

Understanding the War on Terror from a Sociological/Anthropological Perspective

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Event Title
Understanding the War on Terror from a Sociological/Anthropological Perspective
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<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>).

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.