“Soft power” does not always mean “smart power”: an investigation of human terrain teams in Iraq and Afghanistan

Paul Joseph ()
Additional contact information
Paul Joseph: Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA

Palgrave Communications, 2016, vol. 2, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract This article reviews the promise and actual achievement of Human Terrain Teams (HTTs): the small groups of social scientists that were eventually embedded in every combat brigade in Iraq and Afghanistan. On the basis of interviews with both HTT personnel and their military commanders, this article explores the military’s need for sociocultural information, the ethical issues surrounding research carried out in combat zones and the tensions between military and social science organizational cultures. The account provides a close, detailed account of HTT activities, offers a critical reflection on the possibilities of creating a “softer”, less violent counterinsurgency, as well as the difficulty of attempting to make war more “intelligent”, discriminating and effective. This article is published as part of a collection on soft power.

Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/palcomms.2016.97 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palcom:v:2:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1057_palcomms.2016.97

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/palcomms/about

DOI: 10.1057/palcomms.2016.97

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Palgrave Communications from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().