Why Nation-Building Matters establishes a framework for building security forces, economic development, and political consolidation that blends soft and hard power into a deployable and effective package.

Why do some countries remain poor and dysfunctional while others thrive and become affluent? The expert contributors to this volume seek to identify reasons why prosperity has increased rapidly in some countries but not others by constructing and comparing cases. The studies focus on the processes of nation building, state building, and economic development in comparably situated countries over the past hundred years--and arrive at findings that do not validate the conventional wisdom.

Why do some countries remain poor and dysfunctional while others thrive and become affluent? The expert contributors to this volume seek to identify reasons why prosperity has increased rapidly in some countries but not others by constructing and comparing cases. The case studies focus on the processes of nation building, state building, and economic development in comparably situated countries over the past hundred years. Part I considers the colonial legacy of India, Algeria, the Philippines, and Manchuria. In Part II, the analysis shifts to the anticolonial development strategies of Soviet Russia, Ataturk's Turkey, Mao's China, and Nasser's Egypt. Part III is devoted to paired cases, in which ostensibly similar environments yielded very different outcomes: Haiti and the Dominican Republic; Jordan and Israel; the Republic of the Congo and neighboring Gabon; North Korea and South Korea; and, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. All the studies examine the combined constraints and opportunities facing policy makers, their policy objectives, and the effectiveness of their strategies. The concluding chapter distills what these cases can tell us about successful development - with findings that do not validate the conventional wisdom.

Ethiopia is an ancient country with rich potential, but it has not yet resolved the fundamental question of economic development and nation building. The Ethiopian population lives under the threat of recurring famine and war. The conflict that existed between Ethiopia and Eritrea for several decades was never resolved peacefully, and a new conflict has recently emerged on top of the old. Economic Development and Nation Building in Ethiopia gives valuable insight into these problems. The book first checks the major views of development with the Ethiopian experience and examines the impact of the IMF program and the Post-Cold War globalization on the Ethiopian development. Showing the historical disparities in development between Ethiopia and the now industrialized societies of the world, the book examines the possibilities for Ethiopian economic development and nation building. Author Daniel Teferra investigates the incentives for a shared market and broader democracy between Ethiopia and Eritrea by taking a closer, more focused look at the two societies.

Donor nations may advise and counsel, but the creation of a liberal nation state falls to its own people. They must create laws, exercise their liberties, provide freedom of belief and expression, and protect individual property rights. No nation becomes or remains free unless its people build, use, and defend these institutions, and protect them with understanding, vigilance, and effort. The Political Economy of Nation Building reviews the effects of political structures on the evolution and stability of liberalism in developing nations and considers the outlook for their success. Discussing the origins and applications of the modern liberal state from an explicitly Anglo- and Euro-centric view, Mack Ott addresses the origins of the rule of law and innovations that led to the rise of a market economy, separation of faith and governance, and the autonomy of finance—key components of the liberal state. He then addresses the emergence of sustained economic growth, a bridge between the liberal infrastructure and its application during the construction of a nation. Ott examines budget policy and laws, and accurate and timely economic and financial statistical reporting that assure donors that the recipient government is operating within the constraints of law. He addresses the beneficial effects of privatization of state-owned industry, examines the costs and benefits of nurturing non-governmental associations, and concludes with a review of transparent fiscal and monetary policies and the importance of non-interference in financial markets by the state.

Weak or failed states - where no government is in control - are the source of many of the world's most serious problems, from poverty, AIDS and drugs to terrorism. What can be done to help? The problem of weak states and the need for state-building has existed for many years, but it has been urgent since September 11 and Afghanistan and Iraq. The formation of proper public institutions, such as an honest police force, uncorrupted courts, functioning schools and medical services and a strong civil service, is fraught with difficulties. We know how to help with resources, people and technology across borders, but state building requires methods that are not easily transported. The ability to create healthy states from nothing has suddenly risen to the top of the world agenda. State building has become a crucial matter of global security. In this hugely important book, Francis Fukuyama explains the concept of state-building and discusses the problems and causes of state weakness and its national and international effects.

A new and comprehensive look at the reasons behind successful or failed nation building Nation Building presents bold new answers to an age-old question. Why is national integration achieved in some diverse countries, while others are destabilized by political inequality between ethnic groups, contentious politics, or even separatism and ethnic war? Traversing centuries and continents from early nineteenth-century Europe and Asia to Africa from the turn of the twenty-first century to today, Andreas Wimmer delves into the slow-moving forces that encourage political alliances to stretch across ethnic divides and build national unity. Using datasets that cover the entire world and three pairs of case studies, Wimmer’s theory of nation building focuses on slow-moving, generational processes: the spread of civil society organizations, linguistic assimilation, and the states’ capacity to provide public goods. Wimmer contrasts Switzerland and Belgium to demonstrate how the early development of voluntary organizations enhanced nation building; he examines Botswana and Somalia to illustrate how providing public goods can bring diverse political constituencies together; and he shows that the differences between China and Russia indicate how a shared linguistic space may help build political alliances across ethnic boundaries. Wimmer then reveals, based on the statistical analysis of large-scale datasets, that these mechanisms are at work around the world and explain nation building better than competing arguments such as democratic governance or colonial legacies. He also shows that when political alliances crosscut ethnic divides and when most ethnic communities are represented at the highest levels of government, the general populace will identify with the nation and its symbols, further deepening national political integration. Offering a long-term historical perspective and global outlook, Nation Building sheds important new light on the challenges of political integration in diverse countries.