Social Science Goes to War
Subtitle: The Human Terrain System in Iraq and Afghanistan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 320
ISBN-13: 9780190216726
Subjects: Military intelligence; Afghan war, 2001-; War and society; Iraq war, 2003-2011
Description: The Human Terrain System (HTS) was catapulted into existence in 2006 by the US military's urgent need for knowledge of the human dimension of the battlespace in Iraq and Afghanistan. Its centrepiece was embedded groups of mixed military and civilian personnel, known as Human Terrain Teams (HTTs), whose mission was to conduct social science research and analysis and to advise military commanders about the local population. Bringing social science - and actual social scientists - to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was bold and challenging. Despite the controversy over HTS among scholars, there is little good, reliable source material written by those with experience of HTS or about the actual work carried out by teams in theatre. This volume goes beyond the anecdotes, snippets and blogs to provide a comprehensive, objective and detailed view of HTS.