The Corporal at the Checkpoint: Force, Remorse and Responsibility in the Three-Block War

“The Corporal at the Checkpoint: Force, Remorse and Responsibility in the Three-Block War”

During the post-cold war "intervasions" in Somalia, Haiti and the Balkans, US Marines were encouraged to develop the mindset of the "strategic corporal" to navigate America's so-called "three-block wars." These concepts collided with the messy realities of occupation and insurgency in Iraq. The human cost -for Iraqi civilians and US service personnel - was especially high at their fraught encounters at vehicle checkpoints.
The human cost -for Iraqi civilians and US service personnel - was especially high at their fraught encounters at vehicle checkpoints. This paper analyzes the dynamics of power in such encounters, and their significance for an engaged military anthropology.

Keith Brown 

Research Professor 

Thomas J. Watson Institute for International Studies 

Brown University

Keith Brown is an anthropologist who works on ethno-nationalism, labor migration, democracy promotion, and new forms of citizenship in the Balkans and transnationally. He is committed to collaborative research that involves scholars and practitioners from different professions and disciplines.