Nation-building A Key Concept for Peaceful Conflict Transformation?

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.