We have launched a study of the Human Terrain System here at Institute for National Strategic Studies and the story is extraordinarily rich in conundrums.

I wonder if somebody at Georgetown might be running a small research laboratory that perhaps could harness the energy of some doctoral students on this topic. I have become a bit of a detail-addict on the study, but that is not sustainable.

A very bright masters student from Virginia Tech named Jill Page is writing her thesis on the story, but I think that she will run out of time, and only focus on the Afghanistan side of the story.

With Petraeus taking his toolkit to Afghanistan, and the Human Terrain System being such a high-visibility tool in that kit, I suspect that more attention will focus on the HTS in the fall semester.

Doug Orton