The Way Ahead for Human Terrain Teams

Abstract

General Raymond T. Odierno, Chief of Staff of the Army, learned from his three combat tours in Iraq that the U.S. military needs to better understand local populations and their social, political, and cultural attributes. He concluded that the more we understand the human domain, the less combat force it takes to prevail in counterinsurgency. Similarly, during his confirmation hearing before taking command of U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces in Afghanistan in June 2010, General David Petraeus told Congress that the decisive terrain in counterinsurgency was the human terrain. These leaders understand that effective counterinsurgency requires protecting and eliciting cooperation from the population the human terrain which, in turn, requires a keen understanding of the population s social and cultural characteristics.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2013
Accession Number
ADA617175

Entities

People

  • Christopher Jon Lamb
  • James D. Orton
  • Michael C. Davies
  • Theodore T. Pikulsky

Organizations

  • National Defense University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Asymmetric Warfare
  • Attrition
  • Combat Forces
  • Employment
  • Improvised Explosive Devices
  • Information Operations
  • Lessons Learned
  • Military Operations
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Nato
  • Personnel Management
  • Security
  • Social Sciences
  • Training
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Fields of Study

  • History

Readers

  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.
  • Systems Analysis and Design