ABSTRACT
Designed to work in tandem with the US counterinsurgency campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, Human Terrain Systems (HTS) was created to fill the perceived void of understanding facing the US armed forces. The centerpiece of the program are five-member HTTs composed of social scientists, cultural anthropologists, and area studies experts who embed with combat forces in the two countries. Their purpose is to serve as cultural analysts and advisors to the military, helping brigade commanders understand and deal with the 'human terrain': the social, ethnographic, cultural, economic, and political elements of the people among whom a force is operating. HTS received overwhelmingly positive coverage in the media and was heavily promoted as a program that saves lives. While supporters of the program claimed that the use of embedded social scientists has helped reduce violent interactions between the military and the occupied populations, its harshest critics worried that HTS was nothing more than an intelligence gathering program.
