Peace Pundit

In my recent review of the book Three Cups of Tea (see review), I suggested that the US Military could learn much from the work of Greg Mortenson and his Central Asia Institute about how to wage peace rather than war in the mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan, allowing them to win over locals and reduce the influence and popularity of the Taliban.

One strong piece of evidence that Mortenson’s approach works is that although the Taliban have since 2007 shut down almost a thousand secular schools — especially schools that educate girls — in the regions where they operate, none of the almost 100 Central Asia Institute schools — all of which educate girls as well as boys — have been shut down (although one was attacked and temporarily occupied by the Taliban until a local warlord whose daughter attended the school had his militia eject the Taliban from the school). Reason: The schools are built with help and consultation with the people who will use them, to meet their needs. This creates a strong sense of ownership by the local community, which helps insulate the schools from harm.

Mortenson made it clear in the book that he felt he had to keep his distance from the US military, because being perceived as helping them (e.g., providing tactical information) would harm the bond of trust that he and his organization have with the people his institute serves, and might even put his life in jeapardy.

Nonetheless, Three Cups of Tea has become required reading for US senior military officers, US Special Forces in Afghanistan, and military personnel from several other countries.

Mortenson has recently decided that, by showing the military how his organization works and what it does, he can educate them to work more his way, rather than the way they have been working over the past eight years. So he is happy to explain to military audiences that the way to win in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan is to “drink more tea” with the local people.

This change of mind and tactic is apparent in Mortenson’s blog, particularly three recent postings, which link to articles recently published elsewhere:

• New York Times article by Thomas Friedman about the US Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, cutting the ribbon at the opening ceremony for one a new school built by the Central Asia Institute in a remote Afghan village.
• Navy Compass article about Mortenson’s talk to a group of sailors at a naval base in San Diego, CA.
• Times Herald-Record article about Mortenson’s talk to cadets at West Point (the US Army military academy).

This entry was posted on August 15, 2009 at 10:07 pm and is filed under A War Based on Lies, Civilian Casualties, Lessons from History, Peace Action, Peace Organizations, War on Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.