Pentagon’s Decision to Cut Human Terrain System Short-Sighted

Pentagon’s Decision to Cut Human Terrain System Short-Sighted
Dr. Richard R. Boone interviews local residents to find out about their attitudes and daily lives, Baraki Barak District, Logar province, Afghanistan, April 25, 2010 (U.S. Army photo).

Several weeks ago, the U.S. Army quietly killed a program called the Human Terrain System. Created at the height of American counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the program deployed teams of social scientists to conduct highly focused cultural research and advise U.S. military commanders on how to use this knowledge to work more effectively with local populations. While saddled with many problems, particularly early on, the Human Terrain System ultimately complemented traditional intelligence and helped beleaguered U.S. military forces understand the human environment where they fought and worked.

Still, the program’s cancellation created only a brief ripple among Washington defense experts and went unnoticed outside the Beltway. Since it created few jobs in congressional districts, no elected officials rushed to its defense. Since it didn’t involve big-ticket purchases from major defense contractors, no lobbyists pushed to save the program. By Washington standards the demise of the Human Terrain System was a quiet one.

This was unfortunate: The program’s importance exceeded appearances. Its cancellation, in fact, says much about how the U.S. military expects to operate in the next decade or so, and the type of risks it is willing to take during a time of hard decisions and difficult trade-offs.

Keep reading for free!

Get instant access to the rest of this article by submitting your email address below. You'll also get access to three articles of your choice each month and our free newsletter:

Or, Subscribe now to get full access.

Already a subscriber? Log in here .

What you’ll get with an All-Access subscription to World Politics Review:

A WPR subscription is like no other resource — it’s like having a personal curator and expert analyst of global affairs news. Subscribe now, and you’ll get:

  • Immediate and instant access to the full searchable library of tens of thousands of articles.
  • Daily articles with original analysis, written by leading topic experts, delivered to you every weekday.
  • Regular in-depth articles with deep dives into important issues and countries.
  • The Daily Review email, with our take on the day’s most important news, the latest WPR analysis, what’s on our radar, and more.
  • The Weekly Review email, with quick summaries of the week’s most important coverage, and what’s to come.
  • Completely ad-free reading.

And all of this is available to you when you subscribe today.

More World Politics Review