human terrain

human terrain (plural human terrains)

1. The social and cultural aspects of an operational environment, especially in a military context.
   • 2005 Montgomery McFate and Andrea Jackson, ""An Organizational Solution for DOD’s Cultural Knowledge Needs," Military Review, July-August 2005.

     Purpose: augment the military’s ability to effectively plan, train, and operate in the complex human terrain of weak states by conducting unbiased, accurate field research in countries of interest and administering related programs.

   • 2008 Erik B. Eldridge and Andrew J. Neboshynsky, "Quantifying Human Terrain," Thesis, Naval Postgraduate School, June 2008

     The term “human terrain” encompasses a wide variety of concepts and meanings. It came into widespread use following the events of September 11th as a catch all phrase to describe the human dimension of the operational environment, including groups’ and individuals’ feelings and inclinations. However, as a stand alone term, human terrain has not been officially defined by the DoD [US Department of Defense]. Although its use is widely prevalent, human terrain is currently an imprecise term which is vague and nebulous.

   • 2008, Barak A. Salmoni, Paula Holmes-Eber, Operational Culture for the Warfighter: Principles and Applications‎^[1], Government Printing Office, page 34:

     This leads us to a definition of human terrain: Those cultural aspects of the battlespace that, due to their static nature, can be visually represented on a geographic map. Human terrain is static with respect to change over time; rigid with respect to fluid human relationships; and limited to representing behavior in only two dimensions.