Dilemmas of the involvement of Anthropology in Wars: The case of the Human Terrain System (original) (raw)

The involvement of anthropology in warfare, in which anthropologists' performance helps to bridge the gap of cultural awareness of the military in wartime and provide soldiers understandings of foreign local cultures where they deploy, has a long history. The establishment of the Human Terrain System is also to fulfil the need of conducting anthropology research on the life of Iraqis and Afghans for the sake of wars in which the United States has involved. However, the Human Terrain System has been seen as the most controversial program in the history of American anthropology involving in wars. This paper, by systematically reviewing criticism imposed on the Human Terrain System through a desk study, attempts to provide a deep look at dilemmas of the involvement of anthropology in wars. The study found that the Human Terrain System was put under pressure on nine aspects comprising: organizational, financial, institutional, professional, military-strategic, methodological, scholarly, ethical, political. Among others, ethical debates have been heavily taken into account, in which the focus was on whether the Human Terrain System achieves golden principles "do no harm" and "informed consent" in anthropology research on battlefields. The advocates claimed that what the organization did is consistent with codes of ethics, whereas the majority of anthropologists violated the codes. Furthermore, what the Human Terrain System did has been considered as challenges for anthropologists and generated negative effects on the anthropological profession.