In recent years, the annual meetings of the American Psychological Association and the American Anthropological Association have been dominated by discussion about what ethical responsibilities scholars have in relation to war, terrorism, and torture. It has been a fierce debate.

A frequent concern of those who argue against closer ties between the national-security community and professional social scientists is that such relationships place other scholars in the field at risk by casting their research motives in a shadow of suspicion.

Marcus Griffin, a professor of anthropology at Christopher Newport University, weighs in on this controversy from an unusual perspective. He is embedded with a combat brigade on the ground in Iraq as part of a new Pentagon program called the Human Terrain System, which seeks to bring cultural knowledge to the battlefield.

In a recent post, Griffin dismisses the idea that his work with the U.S. Army in any way endangers the lives of his fellow anthropologists.   

Griffin is blogging about his experiences in Iraq, and taking on his critics, at From an Anthropological Perspective.