The biggest problem facing Afghanistan today is the lack of security, especially near the Afghan-Pakistani border, one of the top experts on the Middle East said.

Dr. Thomas Gouttierre, director of the Center for Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, spoke on the historical and current conflicts affecting the war on terror in Afghanistan and the Middle East. The talk, sponsored by the Asian World Center and the Werner Institute for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution, came on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

“There is not enough security in Afghanistan to make the population feel like they have a bright future,” Gouttierre said.

He first encountered Afghanistan as a Peace Corps volunteer, when he taught in local schools. He said he found his passion for Afghanistan then and has continued to work within Afghanistan and with the U.S. government to foster stability ever since.

He touched on internal conflicts between the government and regional warlords, the role international organizations and governments have played in Afghanistan’s reconstruction and how religious extremism is continuing to breed terrorism all over the Middle East.

Though his assessment of Afghanistan may sound bleak, he said the Afghan people are still hopeful the U.S. and other international organizations will succeed with assisting Afghanistan in becoming a stable, terror-free and prosperous nation.

“The most encouraging thing is the hope I see within the Afghan people that things will get better,” he said.