Afghanistan: The Forgotten War?
The second annual Global Issues Forum was held at the University of Wisconsin-Marathon County on October 25, 2007.
The forum panel featured Neamat Nojumi, cultural advisor to the Department of Defense in the Special Operations Command headquarters in Tampa Bay, Florida; Michael Metrinko, an advisor for the U.S. Army War College who served as the U.S. Embassy's Advisor on the Afghan Parliament from December 2005 until July 2007; and Jeffrey Leigh, a UWMC Associate Professor of History, who teaches courses on the History of the Middle East and Terrorism.
Sponsored by the Wisconsin Institute for Public Policy and Service, the forum was moderated by Eric Giordano, the Institute Director. The panel focused on current U.S. policies and strategies related to Afghanistan in light of a re-emergence of strong Taliban resistance to the democratically elected regime.
Questions covered included: Are United States and NATO strategies working to stabilize this troubled nation? Has this front in the “War on Terror” successfully reduced the likelihood of terrorism globally? Why have we had such difficulty in tracking down Osama bin Laden?
The annual Global Issues Forum is made possible by a generous contribution from the Hermening Financial Group, LLC, and Clay Norrbom, a former Vice President at Citibank, London and a UWMC alumnus.
Participants
Neamatollah Nojumi serves as a cultural advisor to the Department of Defense in the Special Operations Command headquarters in Tampa Bay, Florida. He previously worked as a Senior Fellow at the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy, and Conflict Resolution, Institute of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University. He is the author of The Rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan: Mass Mobilization, Civil War, and the Future of the Region (2002) as well as a number of research papers on the contemporary culture and politics in the region. Nojumi has worked as a consultant on Afghanistan with Tufts University/ United States Agency for International Development USAID and the United States Institute of Peace. He is a frequent public speaker on the role of culture in peace and conflict resolution and has developed methodologies for negotiation between state and non-state actors in Central and Southwest Asia. Nojumi served both in military and political fronts in the Afghan resistance known as the Mujahideen in the 1980s, and he became a peace activist in the 1990s. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics and Government from the University of Hartford and a Master of Art in Law and Diplomacy with a focus on International Security and International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Nojumi has also served as a fellow at the Harvard Law School.
Michael Metrinko works as an advisor for the U.S. Army War College. In 2002, he served as a Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, and in 2003, he became part of a U.S. Army Civil Affairs Mission in Herat Province and worked briefly for the Asia Foundation in Kabul. In 2004, he returned to Afghanistan as a Political Officer with the US Army Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Herat. In 2005, Mr. Metrinko served as Political Officer at the US Army/NATO PRT in Farah Province and then worked with the Lithuanian Army/NATO PRT in Ghor Province. From December 2005 until July 2007 he returned again to Kabul and served as the U.S. Embassy's Advisor on the Afghan Parliament. He has been an on-site observer of both the Afghan Presidential and Parliamentary elections, attended both Loya Jirgas, and he is familiar with nearly every current Afghan leader. Mr. Metrinko is a former Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran and Turkey.
Jeff Leigh is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Marathon County. He earned a BFA in Russian Studies and BA in History at the University of Missouri-Columbia and MA and PhD at Indiana University-Bloomington in East European History with minor concentrations in Russian/Soviet and Middle Eastern History. His primary area of research is in identity and institution-building in mid-19th century Bohemia. He has published in the journals Austrian History Yearbook and Nationalities Papers. Leigh is currently preparing a manuscript on the influence of the periodical press and Austrian censorship policies on the development of Czech and German nationalisms in Bohemia. At UWMC, he teaches courses in European, Middle Eastern, and World History as well as the history of modern revolutions and terrorism.