Macalester Geography Professor William Rowe recently had the rare opportunity to interview the President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai over the phone. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) sponsored the interview.

Rowe, who specializes in the geography of Central Asia, traveled to Afghanistan this summer to conduct cultural ecological research and interview Afghans on their views about the political issues facing their country.

A politician from Sweden, a student from El Salvador and a businessman from Pakistan also participated in the interview, meant to discuss the nation’s future.

“There isn’t much to say,” Rowe began, explaining that the president was half an hour late for the scheduled one-hour interview, leaving Rowe with time to personally only ask one question.

Rowe said that a large portion of the interview was devoted to the question of Afghanistan’s relationship with Pakistan.

“The Pakistani hogged most of the interview,” Rowe said. “He asked essentially why Pakistan is always the scapegoat to Afghanistan.” Rowe explained that currently the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan is one of the major places where the Taliban is trying to reconsolidate power. Due to this, Afghanistan blames the Pakistani government for unrest in the area.

Rowe questioned the President about ethnic relationships in Afghanistan. Karzai said that ethnic diversity has lead to warlordism and fiefdoms that undermine the president’s power. Rowe stated that the President was very aware of this issue, and realizes that to control Afghanistan, the power of these local rulers must be uprooted.

Other topics covered during the interview included Afghanistan’s relationship with the European Union, and the progress of the rebuilding the country, which Rowe said from firsthand experience is far from finished.

Rowe said that one of the most interesting points in the interview was a question raising the fact that 94 percent of the money being spent currently by the United States on the “War on Terror” goes to Iraq, not Afghanistan. Rowe said that, though the president was careful with his wording, he said he was happy to be receiving any support from the United States at all, but would not mind a little more support from the Bush administration.

Overall, Rowe described the President as “a very congenial guy.” He felt that the president seemed much more relaxed and informed on the situation of his country than in other interviews when he was forced to share the spotlight with either President George Bush or British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Rowe said that he left the interview with a much better feeling for Karzai and his fledgling government.