Title: American counterinsurgency : human science and the human terrain /
Authors: González, Roberto J. 1969-
Publisher: Prickly Paradigm Press : Distributed by the University of Chicago,
Year: 2009
Subjects: Counterinsurgency United States.; Iraq War, 2003-2011 Military intelligence United States.; Social sciences Moral and ethical aspects.; Social sciences Political aspects.; National security United States
Abstract: Politicians, pundits, and Pentagon officials are singing praises of a kinder, gentler American counterinsurgency. Private military contract firms have begun employing anthropologists, political scientists, psychologists, and sociologists to help meet the US Defense Department's new demand. The $60 million Human Terrain System, an intelligence gathering program embedding social scientists with combat brigades in Iraq and Afghanistan, illustrates the approach. But when the military, transnational corporations, and the human sciences become obsessed with controlling the "human terrain", the civilian populations of Iraq and Afghanistan, what are the consequences? In this timely pamphlet, González offers a searing critique of HTS, showing how the history of anthropology can be used to illuminate the problems of turning "culture" into a military tool--Publisher's description.
Contents: The myth of a "gentler" counterinsurgency -- The origins of human terrain -- Phoenix rising? The birth of HTS -- Imaginary terrorists, virtual tribes: HTS as technological fantasy -- Social science and the imperial imperative.