Issue date: 9/15/08 Section: News

Rebuilding a developing country takes time.

Marlin Hardinger, a 2000 political science graduate, said Afghanistan is no different.

He helped open five schools in the war-torn country last week, just a small part of his responsibilities in helping rebuild the nation.

Hardinger now works as a foreign service officer for the U.S. Department of State. For the past 16 months, he has been one of nearly 100 members on the provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in Helmand, a province in southern Afghanistan.

PRTs are civil-military partnerships that work closely with local government to develop a national development strategy. They also set up community health clinics, schools and training programs for Afghanistan military and police.

"In many respects, we're trying to reestablish aspects of a modern state," Hardinger said last week in a phone call from Kabul, Afghanistan's capital.

There are 26 NATO-led PRTs in Afghanistan, 10 of which the United States administers. The U.K. runs Hardinger's PRT.

PRTs are a "key component" of providing security and reconstruction in a three-part stabilization strategy in Afghanistan (security, governance and development), according to the site.

Hardinger said providing security against Taliban insurgencies and helping the different levels of government reestablish and cooperate effectively are the most important tasks.

"We couldn't do education improvement without security," he said.

Political science professor Ali Abootalebi taught Marlin, one of his "better students," in three classes, and said they eventually developed a friendship and still keep in touch. Abootalebi specializes in international relations and Middle East politics.

"What Marlin is doing is good, it's exciting," he said.

Hardinger said the instability of 30 years of insurgencies and foreign invasions made Afghanistan a breeding ground for terrorism, until the United States displaced Taliban rule in 2001. Now the United States has a responsibility to help Afghanistan back to its feet, he said.

"When Afghanistan didn't have a functional state, it couldn't control its own territory," Hardinger said. "Because of 9/11 and 2001, something had to be done about Afghanistan."

Hardinger said a strong Afghanistan is in America's and NATO's best interest because terrorism thrives in failed states with non-functioning central governments.

Though Abootalebi said Afghanistan needs NATO's help, he thinks the initiative is too focused on security (for America's benefit) to be a successful humanitarian effort.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools