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Accepted Paper:
Know your enemy? Reflections on studying military presence in Afghanistan
Irene Kucera
Paper short abstract:
My anthropological research about Afghanistan leads me into ethical dilemmas. The main dilemma stems from the need to study also the victimizers for understanding the complex relations between armed forces and the civilian population.
Paper long abstract:
My anthropological research into Afghanistan inevitably leads me into ethical dilemmas. The main dilemma stems from the need to study the victimizers in order to understand the complex relations between armed forces and civilian populations. The fact that stories of suffering and violence caused by armed groups are prevalent in my research, urges me to pose the following questions: is it ethically justifiable to study also the victimizers? Are soldiers primarily to be considered as victimizers? How will my research of (alleged) perpetrators affect my relation to the victims? Asking these questions is particularly relevant in the context of Afghanistan, where hostile images of (foreign) armed forces have a long history. In this region, armed forces are likely perceived as an "enemy" - not only by the Afghan population, but also by critical anthropologists. The paper will also address this partial convergence of interlocutors' and researchers' perceptions concerning armed groups as well as the ethical dilemmas that this implies.
Ethics in conflict: doing research in conflict areas and the ethical dilemmas that arise
Session 1