open letter against collaboration with DCSU
Open Letter against academic collaboration with the Defence Cultural Specialist Unit
We, the undersigned, note with grave concern that members of faculties at major British universities (including Cambridge, De Montfort, King's College London, Lancaster, the London School of Economies, and UCL) have been providing academic expertise to the Ministry of Defence's Defence Cultural Specialist Unit (DCSU).
As revealed by recent student-led investigations, we note that the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) plays a specific role in designing and delivering these 'cultural specialist' trainings on behalf of the MoD, and has received at least £400,000 since 2016 to do so. We believe this cooperation goes against the ethical principles of our profession, as a continuation of the British university system's historic complicity with militarist and imperial endeavours. We urge institutions working with the DCSU to reconsider their involvement.
The DCSU was formed in 2010 in response to the invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. It functions under the 1st Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Brigade of the British Army, focused on military intelligence. It is designed to use the world-class talent and perspectives of academics in the UK to train military cultural specialists that can better understand the populations in which the British Armed Forces operate, which includes at least 20 military bases, 43,390 deployed troops and seven 'covert wars' across the globe. As of 2016, the DCSU was served by 64 regular 'Cultural Advisors' (and 26 reserves) in at least 22 countries, from Chile to Chad, Nigeria to the DRC. We also note that militarism and war plunder and pollute the earth, contributing significantly to the climate and ecological crises.
DCSU-trained cultural specialists are supposed to tap into culture and psychology--or 'hearts and minds'--to generate more targeted military policy that furthers the UK's strategic and economic objectives (along with those of its NATO allies), as well as 'compliance' from local populations. Effectively, the British higher education sector is helping the military craft more effective strategies at maintaining control over people considered to be potential sources of resistance or opposition, be they in Mali, Afghanistan, Somalia, Oman, Yemen, or anywhere else.
We believe that this initiative goes against the spirit of our fields, which seek to expand the treasury of human knowledge. Instead, it is a regression to a darker era of knowledge production shaped explicitly by the needs of the British Empire, and symptomatic of a broader culture of surveillance and militarism entrenching itself in our universities, from the Prevent programme to the 'Hostile Environment.'
We agree that academic knowledge production should not be used to support and enhance the multiple forms of harm and domination inherent to imperial projects. We reject the objectives of the MoD's DCSU, and call on any and all lecturers and universities collaborating with it to immediately cease their involvement.
Academics
Dr. Leon Sealey-Huggins - Lecturer in Global Sustainable Development, University of Warwick
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Academics
Dr. Feyzi Ismail - Senior Teaching Fellow in Political Economy, SOAS
Dr. Chris Rossdale - Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, University of Bristol
Dr. Sai Englert - Lecturer in Institute for Area Studies, Leiden University
Dr. Fatima Rajina - Kingston University
Dr. Carrie Benjamin - University of Warwick
Dr. James Eastwood - Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Queen Mary (University of London)
Dr. Akanksha Mehta - Lecturer in Gender, Sexuality and Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths (University of London
Dr. Nivi Manchanda - Senior Lecturer in International Politics, Queen Mary (University of London)
Prof. Gargi Bhattacharyya - Professor of Sociology, University of East London
Dr. Remi Joseph-Salisbury - Presidential Fellow in Ethnicity and Inequalities, University of Manchester
Dr. Adam Elliott-Cooper - Research Associate, University of Greenwich
Dr. Laura Connelly - Lecturer in Criminology, University of Salford
Dr. Melanie Richter-Montpetit - Lecturer in International Security, University of Sussex
Dr. Srilata Sircar - Research Associate, King’s College London
Dr. Kerem Nisancioglu - Lecturer in International Relations, SOAS
Dr. Majed Akhter - Lecturer in Environment and Society, King’s College London
Dr. Rahul Rao - Senior Lecturer in Politics, SOAS
Dr. John Narayan - Lecturer in European and International Studies, King’s College London
Prof. Gurminder Bhambra - Professor of Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies, University of Sussex
Dr. Aggie Hirst - Lecturer in International Relations Theory and Methods, King’s College London
Dr. David Madden - Associate Professor in Sociology, London School of Economics
Dr. Yasmeen Narayan - Lecturer in Postcolonial and Psychosocial Studies, Birkbeck (University of London)
Dr. Lambros Fatsis - Lecturer in Criminology, University of Brighton
Dr. Nadya Ali - Lecturer in International Relations, University of Sussex
Dr. Brenna Bhandar - Senior Lecturer in Law, SOAS
Luke de Noronha - Research Fellow, University of Manchester
Dr. Joseph Trapido - Lecturer in Anthropology, SOAS
Amanda Latimer - Lecturer in Politics, Kingston University
Prof. Immanuel Ness - Professor of Political Science, City University of New York
Prof. Kehinde Andrews - Professor of Black Studies, Birmingham City University
Dr. Muna Dajani - Research Officer Middle East Centre, London School of Economics
Dr. Tanzil Chowdhury - Lecturer in Public Law, Queen Mary (University of London)
Dr. Lisa Tilley - Lecturer in Politics, Birkbeck (University of London)
Dr. Alberto Toscano - Reader in Critical Theory, Goldsmiths (University of London)
Dr. Ali Meghi - Lecturer in Social Inequalities, University of Cambridge
Dr. Ashok Kumar - Lecturer in International Political Economy, Birkbeck (University of London)
Dr. Andy Higginbottom - Associate Professor in Politics, Kingston University
Dr. Nadine El-Enany - Senior Lecturer in Law, Birkbeck (University of London)
Prof. Bill Bowring - Professor of Law, Birkbeck (University of London)
Dr. Monish Bhatia - Lecturer in Criminology, Birkbeck (University of London)
Dr. Karen Wells - Professor of Human Geography, Birbkeck (University of London)
Dr. Elena Loizidou - Reader in Law and Political Theory, Birkbeck (University of London)
Dr. Thomas Miley - Lecturer of Political Sociology, University of Cambridge
Prof. Haim Bresheeth - SOAS
Prof. Haim Yacobi - Professor of Development Planning, UCL (University of London)
Prof. Haim Yacobi - Professor of Development Planning, UCL (University of London)
Prof. Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee - Professor English and Comparative Studies, University of Warwick
Dr. Derek Wall - Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Goldsmiths (University of London)
Dr. Asim Qureshi - CAGE
Dr. Waseem Yaqoob - Lecturer in History of Political Thought, Queen Mary (University of London)
Dr. Maia Pal - Senior Lecturer in International Relations, Oxford Brookes University
Prof. Vron Ware - Professor of Sociology & Gender Studies, Kingston University
Dr. Meera Sabaratnam - Senior Lecturer in International Relations, SOAS
Mattin Biglari - PhD candidate, SOAS
Asad Zaidi - PhD candidate, LSE
Imran Jamal - PhD candidate, SOAS
Mesrob Jassemdjian - PhD candidate, SOAS
Alice Finden - PhD candidate - SOAS
Kelly-Jo Bluen - PhD candidate, LSE
Sophie Chamas - PhD candidate, University of Oxford
Syed Sajid Abbas - PhD student, SOAS
Shreeta Lakhani - PhD candidate, SOAS
Jana Cattien - PhD student, SOAS
Victoria Klinkert - PhD candidate, SOAS
Students
Claire Sosienski-Smith - NUS Vice President (Higher Education)
Zamy Camus-Doughan - SOAS
Imogen Fraser - SOAS
Persis Taraporevala - KCL
Saffa Khalil - SOAS
Anais Arnopoulos - SOAS
Alissa Nanami Ostendorf - SOAS
Nouha Aldaraji - SOAS
Oscar Dunn - SOAS
Nicolas Navarro - SOAS
Anna Yashnikova - Imperial College London
Sarah Lasoye - UCL
Sabrina Shah - SOAS
Ani Petrova - SOAS
Iona Summerson - SOAS
Bethany Elce - SOAS
Makar Iakovlev - SOAS
Rowan Griffin West - SOAS
Imogen Kropf - SOAS
Imogen Kropf - SOAS
Reema Kotecha - SOAS
Victor Smith - SOAS
Sumayyah Wong - SOAS
Idrissa Kamara - SOAS
River Fox - SOAS
Hannah Köveker - SOAS
Valeria Racu - Co-President Welfare & Campaigns, SOAS
Chifa Khelfaoui - SOAS
Anna Quested-Jones - SOAS
Pieke Assmann - SOAS
Fez Endalaust - SOAS
Oliver Cutts - SOAS
Noah Henckel - SOAS
Mao Nakano - SOAS
Mia Kitty Barbe-Willson - SOSA
Yasmin Elsouda - SOAS
Will Durrant - SOAS
Aida Balafkan - SOAS
Daniel Selwyn - SOAS
Khalfan al-Badwawi - SOAS
Daniel Selwyn - SOAS
Khalfan al-Badwawi - SOAS
Ella Spencer - SOAS
Parwana Haydar - SOAS
Bismellah Alizada - SOAS
Maya Reus - SOAS
Silvia Tadiello - SOAS
Oliver Bennathan - SOAS
Patrick Assange - SOAS
Other
Emma Sangster - Forces Watch
Grant Barbe
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