Political Anthropologist Dr. Noah Coburn discusses his latest book "Under Contract: The Invisible Workers of America's Global War" as we delve into the lives of over 3 million private contractors who service the logistics and underbelly of the Global War On Terror in Afghanistan.

Show Notes

Trump’s Disastrous Plan to Increase Contracting in Afghanistan https://thediplomat.com/2018/08/trumps-disastrous-plan-to-increase-contracting-in-afghanistan

Trump’s Afghanistan strategy won’t end human rights violations among immigrant contractors https://qz.com/1062034/trumps-afghanistan-strategy-wont-end-human-rights-violations-among-immigrant-contractors

Websites

https://noahcoburn.com

http://noahcoburn.bennington.edu

https://www.twitter.com/NCoburnNoah

Books

https://www.amazon.com/Noah-Coburn/e/B005MYUBQM/ref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=29268

About the Guest

Noah is a political anthropologist focusing on political structures and violence in the Middle East and South Asia and the Director of the Consortium for Innovative Environments in Learning.

At Bennington College he teaches courses on the overlap of politics, power and culture. He has conducted over 5 years of field research in Afghanistan, and has also conducted field research in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Nepal, Georgia, Turkey and India.  His most recent work focus on international contractors from Nepal, the Republic of Georgia and India, who fought during the war in Afghanistan. He tells their stories and looks at what this means for the future of war and the American Empire in his book Under Contract: The Invisible Workers of America’s Global War.

*Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)