USIP President-select Jim Marshall sat on the floor on large tan floor cushions with a group of Afghan elders to hear their views about bringing peace to their country. He came away struck by how thoughtful they were about the future – and convinced each and every one of them that they could be a member of Congress, since each had a lot to say.
“These tribal leaders could easily be members of the United States Congress,” Marshall, who represented a Georgia district in Congress from 2003 to 2011, joked later. “Once given the floor, they certainly didn’t relinquish it easily.”
Marshall, who will become the president of USIP on Sept. 14, visited Afghanistan to see firsthand USIP’s work on the ground and get a more nuanced idea of the issues confronting all Afghans. He met with women’s rights experts, leading thinkers and activists, members of parliament and the Afghan government and American officials. On this particular evening, he met with a diverse group of 20 or so village elders from four provinces, including Logar and Nangarhar.
Marshall asked each to say how they would bring peace and stability to Afghanistan over the next five years. Sitting on floor cushions and sipping tea and snacking on sugared almonds, the men offered a diverse set of opinions. The key to stability, they said, ranged from problems created by “outside hands” from Pakistan and other countries that should not be permitted to exert influence across the border, while others said there should be a greater respect for the rule of law. Improving poor governance and reducing corruption will have a big impact on Afghanistan’s ability to find peace, said one, and another said Afghans should take more responsibility for its future.
“Military means alone will not bring peace and stability,” said another elder.
Most agreed the Afghan government has to play a larger role and improve its perceptions among the people. But a strong legal system, in whatever form, from traditional ways of justice to more conventional ones, is critical.
“I’ve been part of the United States legal system for decades, spending a lot of my time trying to improve the legal system as an academic,” said Marshall, an attorney who taught law at Princeton. “I had the sense that these tribal leaders would make pretty good judges and can understand why the traditional judicial systems here in Afghanistan, while they have some significant shortcomings, might be acceptable to a large portion of the population.”
He added: “I was also struck by their thoughtfulness and the extent to which they seemed to agree on issues facing Afghanistan in its search for peace.”
