Nation-building A Key Concept for Peaceful Conflict Transformation?
Date
2005-08-28
Authors
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Publisher
Pluto Press
Abstract
The conquests of Afghanistan and Iraq and the attempts to establish
new state systems there have caused the term ‘nation-building’ to
become so popular that it is now even used by ministers and heads
of governments. In a time characterised by economic and political
globalisation plus, at the same time, numerous ethnic confl icts,
failing and failed states, humanitarian interventions, peace-keeping
operations and ‘liberal protectorates’ (Ignatieff), the question of
building new nation-states is taking on exceptional importance.
Nation-building has occupied an important place in the debate on
foreign, security and development policy since the failed intervention
in Somalia. Today, the term is used in the context of regional
stabilisation, imperial control, confl ict management and prevention,
as well as development policy without its specifi c meaning being
clarifi ed in each case.