American Counterinsurgency: Human Science and the Human Terrain

by Gonzalez, Roberto J.

• ISBN13: 9780979405747
• ISBN10: 0979405742
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-02-15
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Politicians, pundits, and Pentagon officials are singing the praises of a kinder, gentler American counterinsurgency. Some claim that counterinsurgency is so sophisticated and effective that it is the "graduate level of war." Private military contracting firms have jumped on the bandwagon, and many have begun employing anthropologists, political scientists, psychologists, and sociologists to help meet the Department of Defense's new demand. The $60 million Human Terrain System (HTS), an intelligence gathering program that embeds social scientists with combat brigades in Iraq and Afghanistan, dramatically 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 Afghanistanwhat are the consequences? In this timely pamphlet, Roberto Gonzalez 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.

Author Biography

Robert J. Gonzalez is associate professor of anthropology at San Jose State University.

Table of Contents

Preface

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

Glossary of Terms

Acknowledgments

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