Human Terrain Systems and the Moral Prosecution of Warfare

There is a growing consensus that cultural variables play an integral role in conflict mitigation. Whether one believes we are truly in a long war, in which capturing hearts and minds is integral, or whether one thinks that a major combat operation is looming on the horizon, cultural knowledge and u...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Cox, Dan G
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
AFGHANISTAN CONFLICT
ANTHROPOLOGY
AWARENESS
CIVILIAN POPULATION
CIVILIAN-MILITARY RELATIONS
COMBATANT-NONCOMBATANT DISCRIMINATION
COMMUNITY RELATIONS
COUNTERINSURGENCY
CULTURAL AWARENESS
CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING
ETHICS
FOREIGN CULTURES
HUMAN TERRAIN SYSTEMS
HUMAN TERRAIN TEAMS
INDIGENOUS POPULATION
IRAQI WAR
JUS AD BELLUM
JUS IN BELLO
JUST CONDUCT OF WAR
JUST WAR DEBATE
JUSTICE OF WAR
MILITARY FORCES(UNITED STATES)
MORAL WARFARE
OVERSEAS
PROPORTIONALITY
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
SECOND WORLD WAR
Sociology and Law
TEAMS(PERSONNEL)
Unconventional Warfare
WARFARE
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Summary:There is a growing consensus that cultural variables play an integral role in conflict mitigation. Whether one believes we are truly in a long war, in which capturing hearts and minds is integral, or whether one thinks that a major combat operation is looming on the horizon, cultural knowledge and understanding of the area of operation are instrumental to success. The recently developed and implemented Human Terrain System (HTS) Project was designed to play an important role in developing cultural knowledge for the U.S. military and is critical to mission success and the moral prosecution of warfare. But this program is new and, admittedly, not perfect. Human Terrain Teams (HTTs) were designed to play a key, on-the-ground role in bridging the cultural and personal identity gap between western military forces and the foreign cultures in which they operate. This is an extremely important but often overlooked aspect of just war theory. A deeper understanding of not only adversarial but friendly culture and personal identity formation allows the U.S. military to better discriminate between friend and foe and to build deeper relationships with local leaders. These measures create a more precise and humane war effort than if the United States was forced to rely solely on indiscriminate, blunt, and largely kinetic options. The U.S. military does not have the ability to veto a political decision to go to war or abscond from any order to engage overseas. Having said this, the U.S. military does have a great say in how a campaign will be conducted and HTS was designed to play an integral role in ensuring that a campaign is conducted as morally and unobtrusively as possible. Published in Parameters, v41 n3 p19-31, Autumn 2011.