Montgomery McFate
Encyclopedia
Montgomery McFate is a cultural anthropologist, a defense
and national security
analyst, and former Science Advisor to the United States Army
Human Terrain System
program. As of 2011, she holds the Minerva
Chair (Strategic Research) at the U.S. Naval War College
.
community in Sausalito, California
, at the time a "hippie
" community. Her parents were artists and associates with such figures as Jack Kerouac
and Lawrence Ferlinghetti
. She grew up in poverty, living on a converted barge
with no plumbing. In high school, McFate spent much of her time in the burgeoning early-1980s San Francisco punk scene, but at the same time, was a strong student with an academic focus, earning numerous scholarship that helped put her through college. During this time, McFate was a close friend of Cintra Wilson
, and the character Lorna in her novel Colors Insulting to Nature
is largely based on the young McFate.
at UC Berkeley and as a graduate student at Yale University
. McFate developed an interest in the conflict studies and the culture of insurgent
groups, and did her doctoral dissertation on Irish Republican social networks and cultural narratives and the role that these played in maintaining the Irish Republican Army
insurgency. As part of this research process, she spent several years living among IRA supporters and later among British counterinsurgents. After earning her PhD in Anthropology in 1994, McFate went on to study law at Harvard Law School
, earning a Juris Doctor
in 1997.
While in graduate school, she married a US Army officer, Sean Sapone (the two would later adopt the maiden surname of his mother, Mary McFate). After earning her JD, she spent the next several years, variously, as an associate in a San Francisco law firm, working for human rights
organizations, and as a travel writer. It is also alleged that during this time Montgomery and Sean McFate worked as private spies for Mary McFate's security firm.
, the United States defense
establishment developed a very good understanding of the Soviet Union, with the ultimate result of that the US triumphed in that conflict. On the other hand, she holds that the military and defense establishment has a very poor understanding of the cultures of the Middle East, resulting in such debacles as the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse
scandal.
Over the next several years, McFate worked as a defense consultant
for the Rand Corporation, the Office of Naval Research
, and the United States Institute of Peace
. In 2004, she was contacted by Dr. Hariar Cabayan, the Science Advisor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff J3 about developing new counterinsurgency strategies in the Iraq War. Ultimately, this led to the development of the Cultural Preparation of the Environment CPE
database developed by MITRE Corporation. The CPE tool was never fielded and the CPE program ended in August 2005. While she is reported in some circles to have been one of the primary architects of the HTS program, she was not. The Human Terrain System
program was established between August 2005 and July 2006 by the US Army's Foreign Military Studies Office directed at the time by Dr. Jacob Kipp. Some time in 2007, McFate joined HTS as the Social Science Advisor. Additionally, she was one of hundreds of contributing authors of the US Army's revised Counterinsurgency Field Manual. While many take credit for authorship, the primary author of the FM was LTC Jan Horvath.
McFate is alleged in several magazine articles to have been the blogger "Pentagon Diva", who briefly ran a blog called "I Luv a Man in Uniform" where she commented on the "hotness" of various Department of Defense
officials and analysts.
and the Vietnam War
, some anthropologists worked in military service, as both academic consultants, and in the field as part of such projects as Operation Camelot. Nevertheless, by the late 1960s, most Western anthropologists had come to reject such collaboration as a breach of trust between anthropologist participant observers and the people they study, endangering the welfare of both parties. The American Anthropological Association
eventually adopted a policy against such collaboration.
McFate sought to reverse this trend, holding that it was possible for a mutually beneficial relationship to emerge between the US military and the populations that insurgency sprang from. This approach, however, has largely been negatively received by the anthropological community, and the American Anthropological Association issued resolutions in 2007 and 2008 condemning the kind of military/anthropological collaboration McFate had called for.
The Human Terrain System
was condemned by the American Anthropological Association in November 2007 and has come under fire for their allegedly poor organization and execution and limited effectiveness.
In 2007 anthropologist David Price
intimated that McFate contributed to plagiarized sections of the new U.S. Army Counterinsurgency Field Manual.
Defense (military)
Defense has several uses in the sphere of military application.Personal defense implies measures taken by individual soldiers in protecting themselves whether by use of protective materials such as armor, or field construction of trenches or a bunker, or by using weapons that prevent the enemy...
and national security
National security
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
analyst, and former Science Advisor to the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
Human Terrain System
Human Terrain System
The Human Terrain System is a United States Army program utilizing experts from social science disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, political science, regional studies and lingustics to provide military commanders and staff with an understanding of the local population...
program. As of 2011, she holds the Minerva
Minerva
Minerva was the Roman goddess whom Romans from the 2nd century BC onwards equated with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the virgin goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, magic...
Chair (Strategic Research) at the U.S. Naval War College
Naval War College
The Naval War College is an education and research institution of the United States Navy that specializes in developing ideas for naval warfare and passing them along to officers of the Navy. The college is located on the grounds of Naval Station Newport in Newport, Rhode Island...
.
Early life
McFate was raised in the houseboatHouseboat
A houseboat is a boat that has been designed or modified to be used primarily as a human dwelling. Some houseboats are not motorized, because they are usually moored, kept stationary at a fixed point and often tethered to land to provide utilities...
community in Sausalito, California
Sausalito, California
Sausalito is a San Francisco Bay Area city, in Marin County, California, United States. Sausalito is south-southeast of San Rafael, at an elevation of 13 feet . The population was 7,061 as of the 2010 census. The community is situated near the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge, and prior to...
, at the time a "hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
" community. Her parents were artists and associates with such figures as Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
and Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti is an American poet, painter, liberal activist, and the co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers...
. She grew up in poverty, living on a converted barge
Barge
A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...
with no plumbing. In high school, McFate spent much of her time in the burgeoning early-1980s San Francisco punk scene, but at the same time, was a strong student with an academic focus, earning numerous scholarship that helped put her through college. During this time, McFate was a close friend of Cintra Wilson
Cintra Wilson
Cintra Wilson is an American writer, performer and cultural critic. Declared as "the Dorothy Parker of the cyber age", she is best known for her commentary on popular culture which is often humorous and irreverent in tone. She currently contributes to the New York Times for its "" series and is...
, and the character Lorna in her novel Colors Insulting to Nature
Colors Insulting to Nature
Colors Insulting To Nature is the fictional follow-up novel to Wilson's previous collection of non-fiction essays in A Massive Swelling...
is largely based on the young McFate.
Academic career
She went on to study anthropologyAnthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
at UC Berkeley and as a graduate student at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. McFate developed an interest in the conflict studies and the culture of insurgent
Insurgency
An insurgency is an armed rebellion against a constituted authority when those taking part in the rebellion are not recognized as belligerents...
groups, and did her doctoral dissertation on Irish Republican social networks and cultural narratives and the role that these played in maintaining the Irish Republican Army
Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...
insurgency. As part of this research process, she spent several years living among IRA supporters and later among British counterinsurgents. After earning her PhD in Anthropology in 1994, McFate went on to study law at Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
, earning a Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
in 1997.
While in graduate school, she married a US Army officer, Sean Sapone (the two would later adopt the maiden surname of his mother, Mary McFate). After earning her JD, she spent the next several years, variously, as an associate in a San Francisco law firm, working for human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
organizations, and as a travel writer. It is also alleged that during this time Montgomery and Sean McFate worked as private spies for Mary McFate's security firm.
Defense career
It was after the September 11 attacks that McFate found what she describes as her "mission": to get the military to understand the importance of "cultural knowledge". McFate has stated that she became "passionate about one issue: the government’s need to actually understand its adversaries". In McFate's opinion, during the Cold WarCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, the United States defense
Defense (military)
Defense has several uses in the sphere of military application.Personal defense implies measures taken by individual soldiers in protecting themselves whether by use of protective materials such as armor, or field construction of trenches or a bunker, or by using weapons that prevent the enemy...
establishment developed a very good understanding of the Soviet Union, with the ultimate result of that the US triumphed in that conflict. On the other hand, she holds that the military and defense establishment has a very poor understanding of the cultures of the Middle East, resulting in such debacles as the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse
Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse
Beginning in 2004, human rights violations in the form of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, including torture, rape, sodomy, and homicide of prisoners held in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq came to public attention...
scandal.
Over the next several years, McFate worked as a defense consultant
Consultant
A consultant is a professional who provides professional or expert advice in a particular area such as management, accountancy, the environment, entertainment, technology, law , human resources, marketing, emergency management, food production, medicine, finance, life management, economics, public...
for the Rand Corporation, the Office of Naval Research
Office of Naval Research
The Office of Naval Research , headquartered in Arlington, Virginia , is the office within the United States Department of the Navy that coordinates, executes, and promotes the science and technology programs of the U.S...
, and the United States Institute of Peace
United States Institute of Peace
The United States Institute of Peace was created by Congress as a non-partisan, federal institution that works to prevent or end violent conflict around the world...
. In 2004, she was contacted by Dr. Hariar Cabayan, the Science Advisor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff J3 about developing new counterinsurgency strategies in the Iraq War. Ultimately, this led to the development of the Cultural Preparation of the Environment CPE
CPE
-Biochemistry:* Carboxypeptidase E* Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin* Cytopathic effect* Cytoplasmic polyadenylation element-Telecommunications:...
database developed by MITRE Corporation. The CPE tool was never fielded and the CPE program ended in August 2005. While she is reported in some circles to have been one of the primary architects of the HTS program, she was not. The Human Terrain System
Human Terrain System
The Human Terrain System is a United States Army program utilizing experts from social science disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, political science, regional studies and lingustics to provide military commanders and staff with an understanding of the local population...
program was established between August 2005 and July 2006 by the US Army's Foreign Military Studies Office directed at the time by Dr. Jacob Kipp. Some time in 2007, McFate joined HTS as the Social Science Advisor.
McFate is alleged in several magazine articles to have been the blogger "Pentagon Diva", who briefly ran a blog called "I Luv a Man in Uniform" where she commented on the "hotness" of various Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
officials and analysts.
Anthropology and the military
The relationship between anthropologists and the military has long been the subject of controversy. Historically, notable anthropologists such as Bronisław Malinowski have closely worked with colonial military authorities, and during World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, some anthropologists worked in military service, as both academic consultants, and in the field as part of such projects as Operation Camelot. Nevertheless, by the late 1960s, most Western anthropologists had come to reject such collaboration as a breach of trust between anthropologist participant observers and the people they study, endangering the welfare of both parties. The American Anthropological Association
American Anthropological Association
The American Anthropological Association is a professional organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 11,000 members, the Arlington, Virginia based association includes archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, biological anthropologists, linguistic...
eventually adopted a policy against such collaboration.
McFate sought to reverse this trend, holding that it was possible for a mutually beneficial relationship to emerge between the US military and the populations that insurgency sprang from. This approach, however, has largely been negatively received by the anthropological community, and the American Anthropological Association issued resolutions in 2007 and 2008 condemning the kind of military/anthropological collaboration McFate had called for.
The Human Terrain System
Human Terrain System
The Human Terrain System is a United States Army program utilizing experts from social science disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, political science, regional studies and lingustics to provide military commanders and staff with an understanding of the local population...
was condemned by the American Anthropological Association in November 2007 and has come under fire for their allegedly poor organization and execution and limited effectiveness.
In 2007 anthropologist David Price
David Price (anthropologist)
David H. Price is an American anthropologist. He studied anthropology at The Evergreen State College, the University of Chicago and the University of Florida and is a professor of anthropology at St. Martin's University in Lacey, Washington.Price has conducted cultural anthropological and...
intimated that McFate contributed to plagiarized sections of the new U.S. Army Counterinsurgency Field Manual.
External links
- Guide to Specialists: Montgomery McFate, United States Institute of Peace, 2007. (Archived at Archive.org.)
- "Human Terrain Systems", interview with Montgomery McFate, The CurrentThe Current (radio program)The Current is a Canadian current affairs radio program, hosted by investigative reporter Anna Maria Tremonti on CBC Radio One. It airs weekdays starting at 8:37 a.m. local time and runs until 10 a.m. for most of the year, although during the summer the program airs until 9:30 a.m...
, October 17, 2007. (Scroll down.) - "Army Brat" by Louisa Kamps, ElleElle (magazine)Elle is a worldwide magazine of French origin that focuses on women's fashion, beauty, health, and entertainment. Elle is also the world's largest fashion magazine. It was founded by Pierre Lazareff and his wife Hélène Gordon in 1945. The title, in French, means "she".-History:Elle was founded in...
, April 2008. - "Army Anthropologist's Controversial Culture Clash" by Noah Shachtman, WiredWired (magazine)Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
, September 23, 2008. - "Raised Eyebrows over Keynote Choice" by Elizabeth Redden, Inside Higher EdInside Higher EdInside Higher Ed is a daily online publication focused on college and university topics, based in Washington, D.C., USA.The publication was founded in 2004 by Kathlene Collins, formerly a business manager for The Chronicle of Higher Education, and two former top editors of The Chronicle, Scott...
, November 26, 2008. - "Should anthropologists work alongside soldiers?" by Dan Vergano and Elizabeth Weise, USA TodayUSA TodayUSA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, December 8, 2008. - "Brave Thinkers: Montgomery McFate", The Atlantic, November 2009.
Publications
- MontgomeryMcFate.com Select Recent Publications
- (as Montgomery Sapone) Ceasefire: The impact of Republican culture on the ceasefire process in Northern Ireland, Journal of Conflict Studies, 21(1), 2001. (PDF)
- Anthropology and counterinsurgency: The strange story of their curious relationship, Military Review, March–April 2005, p 24–38.
- Iraq: the social context of IEDs, Military Review, May–June 2005, p 37–40.
- (with Andrea Jackson) An organizational solution for DoD's cultural knowledge needs, Military Review, July–August 2005, p 18–21.
- The military utility of understanding adversary culture, Joint Forces Quarterly, Summer 2005, p 42–48.
- (with Andrea Jackson) The object beyond war: counterinsurgency and the four tools of political competition, Military Review, January–February 2006, p 13–26.