In the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof–columnist, writer, and author of the new book “Half the Sky”– weighs in on a very political issue in a unique way. He makes the case that building schools and investing in education is a good idea in any country, and especially in countries like Afghanistan that are working to fend off extremism and rebuild their economies and governments.

Citing the work of Greg Mortenson and CARE in Afghanistan, Kristof argues “that there is still vast scope for greater investment in education, health and agriculture in Afghanistan.”

You can read excerpts from the piece below, and the full article here:

Schools are not a quick fix or silver bullet any more than troops are. But we have abundant evidence that they can, over time, transform countries, and in the area near Afghanistan there’s a nice natural experiment in the comparative power of educational versus military tools.

For roughly the same cost as stationing 40,000 troops in Afghanistan for one year, we could educate the great majority of the 75 million children worldwide who, according to Unicef, are not getting even a primary education. We won’t turn them into graduate students, but we can help them achieve literacy. Such a vast global education campaign would reduce poverty, cut birth rates, improve America’s image in the world, promote stability and chip away at extremism.