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 strategic crisis. The dubious idea that could come to mind is: “it is always better than nothing, and after all we accept private funds that are oriented by profit-seeking, and […]
The Department of Defense recently announced the creation of the Minerva Research Initiative, also known as Project Minerva, providing as much as $75 million over five years to support social science research on areas of strategic importance to U.S. national security policy. The initiative indicates a renewal of interest in social science findings after a prolonged period of neglect, but it also prompts concerns about the appropriate relationship between university-based research programs and the state, especially when research might become a tool of not only governance but also military violence. The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) has invited prominent scholars to speak to the questions raised by Project Minerva and to address the controversy it has sparked in academic quarters.
The Minerva Controversy
‘Operations other than War’: The Politics of Academic Scholarship in the 21st Century
by David Nugent
Among the many serious concerns raised by the Minerva project is the autonomy and impartiality of the academic domain — and the conditions that variously promote or threaten to undermine that autonomy. In general terms, it is tempting to regard military efforts to shape academic knowledge as a threat to the production of uncompromised, impartial […]
The Minerva Controversy
The Forgotten History of Knowledge and Power in British Iraq, or Why Minerva’s Owl Cannot Fly
by Priya Satia
In its lofty attempt to restore wisdom to war, Project Minerva promises to harness the formidable intellectual powers of the American university to the anti-intellectual gambits of the “war on terror.” Darkness has fallen, and the initiative heralds the proverbial flight of Minerva’s owl; the DoD has finally confessed it is out of its depth […]
The Minerva Controversy
Unveiling Minerva
by Hugh Gusterson
Let’s try a thought experiment. Imagine you are a researcher in epidemiology. You are interested in finding out whether restrictions on smoking in bars and restaurants, recently adopted by a number of cities, have had any effect on the incidence of respiratory ailments probably connected to secondhand smoke. To do this, you need funding. The […]
The Minerva Controversy
De-militarization
by Faisal Devji
If it were merely about creating links between universities and the military that might compromise academic freedom, the Minerva Initiative would be of no particular interest. For there exists a long history of such interactions, whose heroic moments belong to the Cold War and include the establishment of funding bodies for studying languages, cultures and […]
The Minerva Controversy
Pentagon Priorities and the Minerva Program
by John Tirman
The Defense Department’s Minerva program stirs many interesting debates, and among them should be what the program says about the government’s assessment of security threats to the United States. It is not a satisfying picture. Of the five major program interests articulated by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and the program guidelines, three of them […]
The Minerva Controversy
Skewing Scholarship
by Conor Gearty
It strikes me immediately that the Minerva project represents simultaneously something of an advance and also a retreat. On the one hand it is a sign of progress that those engaged in the management of American ‘security’ (as they conceive the term) regard it as no longer possible to rely simply on the imposition of […]
The Minerva Controversy
Making Sense of Minerva Controversy and the NSCC
by Thomas Asher
The Department of Defense, under Robert M. Gates, recently announced the creation of the Minerva Research Initiative, which would provide grants approaching an estimated $18 million in 2009 and as much as $75 million over five years to support social science research “focusing on areas of strategic importance to U.S. national security policy.” The initiative […]