By KATELYN RHODEHOUSE

Many foreign policy and international studies professionals and military personnel came together last Thursday for a symposium on the challenges of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The keynote speaker was the current chairman of the Defense Policy Board, John Hamre.
His remarks focused mostly on developing a political strategy for Afghanistan.

There are three paths for political strategy, he said. First is to build a coherent and effective central government and to have the government reach out and bring structure to Afghan society.
The second pathway is to build relationships with local tribal leaders.

“Political legitimacy grows from the bottom, not from the top,” Hamre said.
To find and understand the local power structure and manipulate it was the third path.
Those are the three practical pathways facing the president and his advisers, he said.

“We could throw another 40,000 troops in and I think we could stabilize the current deteriorating security environment in Afghanistan, but it doesn’t provide a political answer for how this ends,” Hamre said.

Col. Michael Meese, Head of the Department of Social Sciences at West Point, also spoke at the symposium.

He said it is important to understand the tribal structure and to work with the local government, not against them.

“We want out local governments to be better than the local Taliban,” Meese said.
The military used an American model when training the Iraqi army and they are using the same strategy with training the Afghan army.

“In fact, President Bush’s strategy in Iraq was titled, ‘as they stand up, we will stand down.’ We’re going to teach people how to fish instead of just handing out fish,” Meese said.
The senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Gerald Hyman, said they should have a goal and be prepared to make compromises.

“The goal we should be keeping in mind is to have a democratic Afghanistan, not only for our ideals, but for the realities of what is necessary to create in Afghanistan the kind of secure environment, the kind of reasonable partner for the United Sates and everybody else,” Hyman said.

The symposium was given by the Wheatley Institution in conjunction with the Kennedy Center.