Helping nations build themselves (2)
Thursday, 08 December 2011 00:00
Book Review: Armed Humanitarians – The Rise of the Nation Builders by Nathan Hodge
After having read Can Intervention Work? by Stewart and Knaus, the question naturally arose how the alleged failures of nation-building in Iraq and Afghanistan came about in more detail. Reading Armed Humanitarians gave the answer and confirmed the intuitive conclusion that in nation-building the adage ‘all politics is local’ is valid as well.
The political presumptions and goals were either wrong or unrealistic, the military capabilities were insufficient, and the institutional, diplomatic resistance and incompetence from the US State Department were lethal. This book chronicles in detail and with great flair how the US military was confronted with a political purpose and factual situation that it was not prepared for, and how it tried to solve it through concepts and plans through trial and error. Clearly, the military was not equipped to do nation-building. The institutional change and increase in capabilities required within the US State Department to support the military efforts towards nation-building were slow to develop and is arguably still not up to par. Most interesting was the role of what are called ‘for-profit development assistance companies’. The civilian contractors used to build and run the military bases and protect diplomats, proved to be an obstacle to nation-building, as the efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan did prove to be a giant money-making machine for these companies.
There was and is a lack of coordination between military, diplomatic and NGO actors , in the absence of clear and coherent strategy and consequently, a tactical plan. All three seem to lack the necessary cultural sensitivity, and most importantly, fail to realize and respect two principles. First, as noted, all politics is local, meaning that development is inherently political and political games must be played on the basis of local circumstances and preferences, on the local playing field. Second, the most crucial goal of nation-building in all three types of nation-building – under fire, post-conflict, or in peace time – is to establish a connection, a level of trust between (local) government and the people. In order to be sustainable, nation-building must be about helping the government and the people build the nation themselves and together. That strongly implies that any theoretical models of how nations can be made to grow and prosper, as well as any moral precepts on the part of the foreign nation-builders, must be left at home. From a so-called Western standpoint, that means that significant compromises should be made with regard to human rights and the rule of law, and the introduction of democratic governance significantly delayed. Western states should have confidence that the organic or natural development of a state will give rise to demands for the rule of law and ultimately, democracy.
That still leaves the question what is needed for a country to develop economically. If two further connected principles may be permitted, for a national economy to develop that economy must, first, be plugged in into the world economy. Without participating in globalization, a country will not be able to reap its fruits. Secondly, for an economy to be able to tap into globalization, it needs foreign investment. Perhaps the ultimate question is than, what will it take for foreign investors to invest in, let’s say, Mali?