by Bob Edwards and Chad Campbell, senior producer
For generations, the American military has sent troops to foreign lands to enforce authority on people who don’t know our language or culture. Likewise, the troops haven’t known theirs either – presenting infinite possibilities for mistakes and misunderstanding. And in combat, a misreading of a gesture or exclamation can have deadly consequences. The good news is that the U.S. military now embeds cultural anthropologists with combat units in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Army proof-of-concept program is called the Human Terrain System. A typical team is composed of an active military officer, two former military personnel and two “academic embeds.” The civilian social scientists go out with interpreters and with those combat units to gather research, conduct interviews and build relationships with locals. Then they take that data and apply it to what the commander needs to know, adding to his understanding of the “human terrain” in the battle space. Many academics have protested the military’s use of social scientists. You can read about the American Anthropological Association’s opposition to the program here. We reference the topic in our interview with senior social scientist Montgomery McFate and with the program manager Colonel Steve Fondacaro. They stress that the Human Terrain System and the information gathered by social scientists is not turned into targeting information, as it sometimes was during the Vietnam war.
The team we follow is designated AF7, the seventh team deployed to Afghanistan. They are team leader John Foldberg, research manager Major Maria Vedder, analyst Jared Davidson and civilian social scientist Kristin Post. We met with them in July of 2009 during their three weeks at the Army’s National Training Center in the Mojave Desert of southern California (click here for more information on the NTC and to hear our documentary from last November). We also talked with them a month later at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas where HTS team members receive about three months of classroom training. The team deployed to Helmand province in southern Afghanistan last September and its work there is concluding soon. We’ll speak with members of the team in the coming weeks to hear about their experiences and how well the training prepared them for the deployment.
In the short history of the Human Terrain System, the program has lost three social scientists, Michael Bhatia, Nicole Suveges and Paula Loyd. Click here to read more about the program’s three social scientists killed in action.
And here are some frequently asked question (and the answers) about the Human Terrain System.
There is much more to HTS than is described in this story. Unfortunately, most of it is unpleasant. Interviews with other HTTs in the field and in training would reveal a much more complete picture. HTS’s motives may have been laudable in its early days, but now it’s all about money and appearances. The recent dismissal of Steve Fondacaro is a perfect example of ‘too little to late.’
If you are interested in learning more about the Human Terrain System there is a new documentary "Human Terrain" exploring the use of social scientists in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The film documents both the rise of "cultural awareness training" in the Mojave Desert and the tragic consequences of embedding social scientists in Human Terrain Teams, after a collaborator on the film, Michael Bhatia, joins the Human Terrain System and becomes its casualty. You can learn more here: http://www.humanterrainmovie.com
Couldn’t agree more with the previous comment. Absolutely fascinating. This is what radio should be all about. Great show!
Hey Bob:
I’ve come to be a daily listener of your programs on my way to work every morning. I can’t tell you how nice it is to have an alternative to the daily rhetoric you hear on talk based radio stations. It seems regardless of position, the interviews you conduct and the people you have as guests provide fresh prospective.
I was so glued to the radio this morning listening to your documentary Kansas to Kandahar, I sat in the parking garage an extra 1/2 hour to listen. The topic was fascinating!
Thanks for making that time during my commute memorable.
Regards…Todd