A New Formula for Afghanistan's Success

CAMP ATTERBURY, IN. – After decades of violence and war in Afghanistan, the battle for law, stability and structure to the economy remains a fighting factor in its independence. The U.S. government has remained dedicated to bolstering Afghanistan's economy.

New strategies are being implemented by the U.S. to take a different approach to handling the balance of economic stability of Afghanistan by adding civilians into the restorative equation.

As the upcoming deployment of the Indiana National Guard's 38th Infantry Division nears, Soldiers with Task Force Cyclone have joined forces to gain the insight of professionals outside the military on the topic of rule of law.

Members of Task Force Cyclone's Staff Judge Advocate section met with Indiana University professor of law, David Fidler, at Camp Atterbury to discuss strategies of implementing and maintaining the rule of law in Afghanistan.

Fidler, who is also the director of the Center on American and Global Security at IU, said this joint exchange of information is important to the success of refortifying Afghanistan's economy.

"Working with the rule of law activities has heightened the sensibilities of military personnel and civilian officials to their mutual needs," said Fidler. "It seems the level of respect between the military and the civilian side of the house is growing, a recognition that this really does need to be a united effort."

Fidler explained that in early efforts to make Afghanistan and Iraq more prosperous societies, it was the military that took on all the obstacles of rebuilding and restructuring these war-torn economies.

"One of the problems in Iraq and Afghanistan is that many tasks of stability operations, reconstruction and development have been undertaken by military personnel, because there simply haven't been civilians there or civilians trained or available to do this," he explained.

With a surge of civilian professionals moving into Afghanistan soon, the overall plan is to handle many aspects of government, agriculture and economics, all of which have regulatory laws covering each part. That's where the 38th comes in.

Part of Task Force Cyclone's mission will be to assist the Afghanistan government with security, construction, economic and agricultural support in the assigned areas of operation, all of which correspond in some way or another with the rule of law.

"When you think about all the lines of operation – like governments, economic development, essential services and humanitarian relief – cutting across all of those are legal issues. Part of what the rule of law operations do is make sure law is functioning effectively to support economic development or to support essential services," said Fidler.

Along with having many different types of laws, there needs to be more capable judges and lawyers in Afghanistan's legal system, says Senior Staff Judge Advocate Lt. Col. James Zieba, Task Force Cyclone.

"There needs to be an effort to educate and provide professional development so the judges and the lawyers become more competent in what they do," said Zieba.

Many different tribal laws and customs affect numerous ethnic regions of Afghanistan, so the focus is on making a standard set of laws across the country.

A big challenge foreseen by Zieba is the unification between the different ethnic groups who control law in their particular area.

"It will be a struggle to deal with the different ethnicities because you may have some ethnicities at first that will reject you," said Zieba. "If you can show what the benefits are to a community and the economic development in that community, then the leaders could help grow that into the other communities."

Both Fidler and Zieba agreed that regardless of when it's accomplished, the problem as a whole cannot be figured by one resource alone. All parties involved from the inside out have to work together to complete the objective of the rule of law initiative.

"There's an increasing willingness and understanding of working together and I think that is going to pay long-term dividends for the U.S. national security and foreign policy going forward," said Fidler.

"This certainly adds an exciting element to the mission," said Zieba. "It's exciting to have an opportunity to go in and try to establish rule of law because it's the foundation for a [advanced] society."

Zieba said the rule of law will not become visible immediately; it will take some time to get each region on board.

"What we do may not be visible next year or the year after, but if we can put the foundation in place we will have the building blocks in place to make Afghanistan a [more advanced] society that can function on its own," said Zieba.