www.thes.co.uk/current_edition/story.aspx?story_id=2033290

Academic protests have forced the Foreign Office to delay an anti-terror
project. Phil Baty reports

Two research councils put plans to enlist academics in the War on Terror on
hold this week after they were accused of risking the lives of British
researchers in Muslim countries.

The Times Higher learnt that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office had been
inviting selected academics to bid for funding under a GBP 1.3 million
project called “Combating Terrorism by Countering Radicalisation”. The
project is focused on countries identified by MI5’s Joint Terrorism Analysis
Centre.

The FCO project, run in partnership with the Economic and Social Research
Council and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, provoked a furious
response from academics who claimed it was tantamount to asking researchers
to act as spies for British intelligence.

Critics claimed the move endangered the lives of researchers, particularly
social scientists and their sources in Muslim countries, whether working on
the project or not.

The ESRC this week delayed the project to enable further consultation as a
result of serious concerns raised by academics through The Times Higher.

Details of the project emerged as The Times Higher obtained a new version of
controversial government guidance on combating extremism on UK campuses.

This suggests that university staff are trained by Special Branch officers
to spot and report extremist behaviour.

According to documents seen by The Times Higher, the FCO project will
examine six regions – Europe, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia,
North Africa and the Gulf and six specific countries, including Turkey,
Jordan and Sudan.

Academics would be asked to “scope the growth in influence and membership of
extremist Islamist groups in the past 20 years”, “name key figures and key
groups” and “understand the use of theological legitimisation for violence”.

“Key topics” include “radicalisation drivers and counterstrategies in each
of the countries studied” and “future trends likely to increase/decrease
radicalisation”.

James Fairhead, an anthropology professor at Sussex University who sits on
both the ESRC’s strategic research board and international committee, has
written to ESRC governors expressing concern that the project has had
“input” from MI5.
In a letter written last week, he said he was “appalled” that the project
has not been considered formally by either of the ESRC boards he sits on and
brought the independence of the ESRC into question.

He said that the project “might endanger British social scientists
overseas”. He told The Times Higher that he was “deeply worried” that
academics would be expected to name extremists.

John Gledhill, chair of the Association of Social Anthropologists, said:
“This raises fundamental ethical issues. People feel that it smacks of the
Cold War use of academics in counter-insurgency activities – essentially
using academics as spies.”

In a letter to members, he said that the issue was part of the “war against
terror’s increasing influence on academic life”.
Martha Mundy, reader in anthropology at the London School of Economics,
circulated a letter to members of the anthropology association warning of
the physical danger to academics and wider concerns about independence of
research. She says the programme entailed a series of specific
“intelligence-driven” questions that “start from the premise of a link
between Islamism, radicalisation (nowhere defined) and terrorism”.

“Such a programme should be neither funded by, nor administered through, the
AHRC and the ESRC, as it violates the principles of transparent competition,
” Dr Mundy writes.

Philip Esler, AHRC chief executive, said: “It is appropriate that the AHRC
enables the powerful intellectual resources in the UK to focus on particular
public policy issues.”

A spokeswoman for the ESRC said the charge that the project was driven by
intelligence was “wholly inaccurate”.

“This is academic-driven research with an academic basis,” she said. “This
is crucial for our integrity.” She also confirmed that it would be open to
full competition.

Adrian Alsop, director of research at the ESRC, said that while the projects
would involve some “limited” fieldwork, all would be subject to rigorous
ethical approval to ensure researchers’ safety.

He said the process had been “transparent and open”, with 100 academics
attending three seminars on the subject. An FCO spokesman said that the
office was working with the research councils to ensure that the work was
independent, transparent, academically sound and properly peer-reviewed.

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