McFate one of Atlantic’s “Brave Thinkers”

The November issue of Atlantic magazine features “27 Brave Thinkers Who Are Shaping Our Future.” There, along with Freeman Dyson, Ben Bernanke, Steve Jobs, Ralph Nader, and the creators of South Park, is Montgomery McFate, anthropology’s enfant terrible, for her help in developing the Human Terrain System:

“Despite the inevitable recruitment and retention problems, and several civilian-scientist casualties, the military credits the program with a measurable decline in the need for combat operations. And though McFate has endured intense criticism from her peers in academia (the American Anthropological Association worries that the program could lead to subjects’ being studied without their “informed consent”), General David Petraeus used McFate’s work in his counterinsurgency manual and the Army now assigns social scientists to serve with all combat brigades in Iraq and Afghanistan.”