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

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.