Proposals for a Humanpolitik:
Building a New Human-Centered Foreign Policy

Using this moment of crisis to transform our foreign policy, we must reject shortsighted and fraudulent notions of "national security" and foreign policy "realism" and instead embrace a new foreign policy of "humanpolitik"— a human-centered foreign policy based around diplomacy, international cooperation, non-aggression, and the protection of human security as the best way to protect the security of the US and, ultimately, the world.

-David Vine, "Proposals for a Humanpolitik: Building a New Human-Centered Foreign Policy"
A humanpolitik begins by placing human beings and the protection of human lives at the center of our foreign policy. It continually asks, What are the human consequences of the nation’s actions not just for US citizens but also, given the increasing interconnectedness of the world, for citizens of the globe?

-David Vine, "Proposals for a Humanpolitik: Building a New Human-Centered Foreign Policy"

"Proposals for a Humanpolitik" appears in the Network of Concerned Anthropologists' The Counter-Counterinsurgency Manual, Or, Notes on Demilitarizing American Society.

​Visit the Network's website: ​concernedanthropologists.weebly.com

The Counter-Counterinsurgency Manual
Or, Notes on Demilitarizing American Society

At a moment when the U.S. military decided it needed cultural expertise as much as smart bombs to prevail in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon’s Counterinsurgency Field Manual offered a blueprint for mobilizing anthropologists for war. The Counter-Counterinsurgency Manual critiques that strategy and offers a blueprint for resistance. Written by the founders of the Network of Concerned Anthropologists, the Counter-Counterinsurgency Manual explores the ethical and intellectual conflicts of the Pentagon’s Human Terrain System; argues that there are flaws in the Counterinsurgency Field Manual (ranging from plagiarism to a misunderstanding of anthropology); probes the increasing militarization of academic knowledge since World War II; identifies the next frontiers for the Pentagon’s culture warriors; and suggests strategies for resisting the deformation and exploitation of anthropological knowledge by the military. This is compulsory reading for anyone concerned that the human sciences are losing their way in an age of empire.

The Network of Concerned Anthropologists Steering Committee consists of:  Catherine Besteman, Andrew Bickford, Gregory Feldman, Roberto González, Hugh Gusterson, Gustaaf Houtman, Jean Jackson, Kanhong Lin, Catherine Lutz, David Price, and David Vine.