Joe Hall reminded me of an interesting article from the New Yorker back in Dec.:

KNOWING THE ENEMY (The New Yorker, 12.18.2006)

The story is about an Australian Army Captain and anthropologist named David Kilcullen who has studied counterinsurgency and is now trying to help the US government make better decisions in the war on terror.

Many anthropologists are extremely wary of working for the gov’t, largely because of folks like Margaret Mead who worked for the War Relocation Authority during WW II. Unfortunately, this debatably-dubious application of anthropology has gone a long way to sullying the reputation of applied anthropology in the academic community. In my opinion, applied anthropologists should absolutely be working for the gov’t, especially in their capacity as cultural brokers and translators. Politicians are some of the most myopic people around - anthropologists can help.