Mark Whitaker reports from Washington DC on the recent policy of the United States army to embed anthropologists and other social scientists with combat brigades in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The hope is that they will teach the military to behave in more 'culturally appropriate' ways and reduce the need for lethal force. However, three young academics have died during the 18 months that the policy has been operation, and the American Anthropological Association has condemned the initiative as unethical.