Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

ROCHELLE DAVIS

Rochelle Davis is assistant professor of anthropology at the Center of Contemporary Arab Studies in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

MER Article

Sudanese and Somali Refugees in Jordan

In late 2015, hundreds of Sudanese staged a sit-in outside the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Amman, Jordan. Their hope was to obtain recognition of their rights as refugees and asylum seekers, and to receive better treatment from the agency. A previous protest in 2014 ha

Emma Murphy, Will Todman, Abbie Taylor, ROCHELLE DAVIS • 25 min read

MER Article

Culture, a Weapon System on the Wane

The concept of “culture” took on new life in US military strategy in 2006. At the time of the US invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003, cultural knowledge and training played no role in US military calculations; it was simply not part of the vocabulary of war. Culture became an official

ROCHELLE DAVIS • 10 min read

MER Article

"Culture as a Weapon"

At the fourth Culture Summit of the US Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) in April 2010, Maj. Gen. David Hogg, head of the Adviser Forces in Afghanistan, proposed that the US military think of “culture as a weapon system.” [1] The military, Hogg asserted, needs to learn the culture of the l

ROCHELLE DAVIS • 19 min read