David Pedersen, "The Value of Options: Statistics, Historical Models and the Path from El Salvador to Iraq

A talk presented as part of the Irvine Seminars in the Anthropology of Modernity
co-sponsored by: Center for Unconventional Security Affairs, Dept of History, and Center for Ethnography
at
University of California Irvine

Thursday, January 29, 2009
David Pedersen, Department of Anthropology, University of California San Diego

This paper traces the multiplex process of abstraction that has transformed the 1980s war in El Salvador and its aftermath into a template for what the US military now calls “the Long War” on terror. I analyze how the resolution of the Salvadoran war has been turned into a replicable model of how to conduct counter-insurgency warfare and create a pro-US liberal democracy in Iraq. I also show how this model appears to guide US-led anti-narcotics efforts in the Americas. Finally, I examine how this model undergirds the consolidation of US counter-insurgency doctrine calling for increased “cultural knowledge,” especially the expertise offered by anthropologists.