Research Papers by Erin K McFee, MBA, PhD
War on the Rocks, 2024
Cowritten with Sean M Kingsland
International Organization for Migration (IOM) – Middle East North Africa Region, 2023
Report on Migration, Environment, and Climate Change in Yemen – Desk Review, 2024
International Organization for Migration - United Nations, 2024
International Organization for Migration (IOM) - Middle East North Africa Region, 2023
Climate change and water scarcity increasingly threaten vulnerable communities in the Middle East... more Climate change and water scarcity increasingly threaten vulnerable communities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The MENA region is the most water-scarce in the world and is projected to be one of those most severely affected by the impacts of climate change globally. Disasters like floods, droughts and wildfires are likely to increase in scale and frequency due to climate change, with severe impacts on people’s livelihoods, security, well-being and resilience. Resultant displacement alongside resource and water scarcity can amplify disaster risk in areas where large-scale movements strain already limited water sources. These dynamics can combine to exacerbate tensions over access to key resources between different community groups, thereby amplifying fragility.
International Organization for Migration (IOM) - Middle East North Africa Region, 2023
The MENA region is the most water-scarce in the world and is projected to be one of those most se... more The MENA region is the most water-scarce in the world and is projected to be one of those most severely affected by the impacts of climate change globally. Disasters like floods, droughts and wildfires are likely to increase in scale and frequency due to climate change, with severe impacts on people’s livelihoods, security, well-being and resilience. Resultant displacement alongside resource and water scarcity can amplify disaster risk in areas where large-scale movements strain already limited water sources. These dynamics can combine to exacerbate tensions over access to key resources between different community groups, thereby amplifying fragility.
Trust After Betrayal - Policy Paper, 2023
The ex-Afghan National Army Special Operations Command (ANASOC) soldiers made unparalleled sacrif... more The ex-Afghan National Army Special Operations Command (ANASOC) soldiers made unparalleled sacrifices fighting alongside U.S. military special operations forces during the last 10 years of the war in Afghanistan. Existing legislation and visa provisions for Afghan allies who
emigrated to the U.S. after the takeover of the Taliban, however, do not account for populations beyond translators and interpreters. Moreover, many ANASOC veterans in the U.S. struggle financially and from the strains of family separation while also lacking the necessary counseling, training, and employment opportunities that they deserve in return for their unwavering service to their country and the United States. This policy paper delves into the experiences of former Afghan National Army Special Operations Command (ANASOC) soldiers who have resettled in the United States after the tumultuous withdrawal from Afghanistan and presents a nuanced set of recommendations to effectively support their livelihoods and dignified integration into this new context. It is grounded in mixed-methods research based on life history interviews and surveys with 36 ANASOC veterans (including two women from the Female Tactical Platoons (FTP)), shedding light on the multifaceted (psycho-)social, economic, and legal challenges faced by these individuals as they transition from military service to civilian life in the United States.
American Anthropologist, 2023
American Anthropologist, 2023
Public Health, Mental Health, and Mass Atrocity Prevention, 2021
Despite a proliferation of scholarship on armed conflict and violence, Colombia and Mexico have b... more Despite a proliferation of scholarship on armed conflict and violence, Colombia and Mexico have been underexplored in studies of mass atrocities. However, systemic and grave violence in both contexts suggests a need to correct this empirical blind spot. This chapter contributes to the field by focusing on those individuals who have previously associated with the groups that commit these atrocities. Public, private, and third-sector actors posit a “lack of values” and “dysfunctional families” as the root cause for men’s involvement in non-state armed groups (NSAGs) in Colombia and Mexico. Leveraging an abductive study design, we took these emic claims seriously and investigated gendered understandings of family roles among former members of NSAGs and their family members, as well as explored the relationship of these understandings to decisions to participate in these groups. We draw from a combined 39 months of ethnographic fieldwork, social census activities, formal and informal interviews in Mexico and Colombia, as well as feminist and anthropological theory on masculinity and violence to develop the concept of moral sonhood through the presentation of our tripartite findings. First, participants do not lack “values” (and those of their families, specifically, their mothers). Second, the shared understandings of what it takes to fulfill filial obligations and duties in these contexts at least partially explain decisions to participate in NSAGs. Third, these reciprocal relations of care can transform to relations of harm when the son is effectively bound to dangerous activities and places.
Emergent Conversations: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 2020
Emergent Conversations: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 2020
Colombian President Santos's government and the leftist guerrilla group, the FARC, have led three... more Colombian President Santos's government and the leftist guerrilla group, the FARC, have led three years of peace negotiations to end the half-century long internal conflict. Not surprisingly, " peace " and its significance have emerged as loci of debate in all sectors of political and social life. This work draws on hegemonic discourses and ethnographic research among conflict affected actors in the department of Caquetá in order to analyze a core site of contestation: the sequencing of peace in relation to other domains of sociopoliticial and economic well-being. I find that the state articulates these other areas of citizen life as contingent upon achieving peace, while citizens believe that peace will only come once there are changes in these other domains. I argue that competing representations in this domain comprise the processes through which key state actors work to set the terms for a very particular kind of Colombian posacuerdo subject.
After more than 50 years of internal conflict, Colombia hosts simultaneous conflict, transition, ... more After more than 50 years of internal conflict, Colombia hosts simultaneous conflict, transition, and postconflict conditions. Within this milieu, the government-sponsored Colombian Agency for Reintegration of Armed Persons and Groups (ACR) has recently focused national and international attention on the elimination of stigma against ex-combatants in order to create the conditions for a more-inclusive postconflict society and reduce the risk for future rearmament and violence. The ACR does this in part by recasting a multitude of individual identity groups associated with the conflict (e.g., " demobilized, " " ex-combatant, " " guerrillero ") as " Colombians " and " citizens " and articulating the conflict as a thing of the past, out of which will emerge a more-peaceful future. Despite this work, I find that the accounts of ex-combatants from illegal armed groups paint a far more complex and precarious picture of managing real threats to personal, familial, and socioeconomic security on a daily basis. I draw on ethnographic field work and semistructured interviews in 2 of the ACR's local service centers to demonstrate the way in which ex-combatants must " play double " in order to survive: They must at once be demobilized in order to obtain life-sustaining benefits from the state and simultaneously hide those identities in their daily lives in order to protect their person and family from the socioeconomic effects of deeply ingrained stigma. I also address the way in which social theory on passing and stigma might fill in some of our gaps in understanding of the highly context-bound conditions of complex transitioning settings.
Proceeding of the NSCB 2006 …, 2006
1 doctoral student and research fellow of Bode Graduate School of Business, 8049 Bode, Norway e-m... more 1 doctoral student and research fellow of Bode Graduate School of Business, 8049 Bode, Norway e-mail:Tatiana.Iakovleva@nforsk.no, tel. +4797626214, (corresponding author) 2 Elizabeth J. McCandless Professor of Entrepreneurship, Simmons School of Management 409 ...
Organizational Management Journal, 2011
Uploads
Research Papers by Erin K McFee, MBA, PhD
emigrated to the U.S. after the takeover of the Taliban, however, do not account for populations beyond translators and interpreters. Moreover, many ANASOC veterans in the U.S. struggle financially and from the strains of family separation while also lacking the necessary counseling, training, and employment opportunities that they deserve in return for their unwavering service to their country and the United States. This policy paper delves into the experiences of former Afghan National Army Special Operations Command (ANASOC) soldiers who have resettled in the United States after the tumultuous withdrawal from Afghanistan and presents a nuanced set of recommendations to effectively support their livelihoods and dignified integration into this new context. It is grounded in mixed-methods research based on life history interviews and surveys with 36 ANASOC veterans (including two women from the Female Tactical Platoons (FTP)), shedding light on the multifaceted (psycho-)social, economic, and legal challenges faced by these individuals as they transition from military service to civilian life in the United States.
emigrated to the U.S. after the takeover of the Taliban, however, do not account for populations beyond translators and interpreters. Moreover, many ANASOC veterans in the U.S. struggle financially and from the strains of family separation while also lacking the necessary counseling, training, and employment opportunities that they deserve in return for their unwavering service to their country and the United States. This policy paper delves into the experiences of former Afghan National Army Special Operations Command (ANASOC) soldiers who have resettled in the United States after the tumultuous withdrawal from Afghanistan and presents a nuanced set of recommendations to effectively support their livelihoods and dignified integration into this new context. It is grounded in mixed-methods research based on life history interviews and surveys with 36 ANASOC veterans (including two women from the Female Tactical Platoons (FTP)), shedding light on the multifaceted (psycho-)social, economic, and legal challenges faced by these individuals as they transition from military service to civilian life in the United States.
"Money laundering, antiquities theft, counterfeiting, the trafficking of people, drugs, weapons, and goods. Where is the line between homeland defense and national security - if it exists at all? How do evolving foreign policy priorities impact the US’ involvement in international efforts against organized criminal networks? How can the national security apparatus map, track, combat, and prevent these crimes and is Indiana Jones real?"