Dr. David Foster, a social scientist with the Panther Human Terrain Team (HTT) in Baghdad, discussed the Human Terrain System project with a standing-room-only audience at IWP on October 19.
Dr. Foster’s examples based on his time in Iraq illustrated the role that HTTs play in developing good relationships with local populations and in providing crucial information to the military. Noting that there are only 25 HTTs in the world, Dr. Foster also described the need of social scientists on HTTs to accomplish their mission quickly – whether it is determining the key issues important to a village, or winning the trust of local people.
IWP Professor Dr. Juliana Pilon and IWP President Dr. John Lenczowski also shared their views on the importance of cultural intelligence for furthering the effectiveness of U.S. operations abroad, creating good will abroad, and ultimately reducing the need for military force.