American Counterinsurgency: Human Science and the Human Terrain

By Roberto J. González

Book Overview

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 Afghanistan--what are the consequences? In this timely pamphlet, Roberto Gonz lez 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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0979405742
• ISBN13: 9780979405747
• Release Date: February 2009
• Publisher: Prickly Paradigm Press
• Length: 134 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 4.4" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Informative

This book has received low markings because individuals directly involved in what Gonzalez is critiquing have given it low markings. This is a clearly polarized issue, and to see the polarized comments and ratings (thus far) points to the fact that Gonzalez has touched upon something that is highly relevant and salient. I would like to see what someone who isn't directly or indirectly involved in HTS or anthropology thinks about this book. As an anthropologist who studies the US military and who has also worked with individuals in the military (on a non-adversarial basis I might add), I, for one, think that this book adds useful information to an important topic.

A timely critical overview of Human Terrain

Roberto González's critique of Human Terrain Systems should be carefully read by all who want to understand the dangers facing America as political and military policymakers increasingly claiming that counterinsurgency can bring victory in Afghanistan and Iraq. González details the political, ethical and practical problems inherent infecting the Human Terrain program as well as the problems facing strategies reliant on anthropologically based counterinsurgency. This is an excellent book to use in the classroom as students are easily drawn into discussions of the ethical, political and strategic issues at the heart of the Human Terrain project.