Nation-building

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Nation-building is a term used to describe deliberate efforts by a foreign power to construct or install the institutions of a national government, according to a model that may be more familiar to the foreign power but is often considered foreign and even destabilising. Nation-building is typically characterised by massive investment, military occupation, transitional government, and the use of propaganda to communicate governmental policy.

The term "nation-building" usually carries a connotation of futility and failure —efforts which may appear to be noble but are destined to bring disaster. The idea is controversial because its has overtones of imperialism and colonialism, whereby local populations view the foreign power as an oppressor attempting to impose a foreign system and culture.

[edit] Overview

Originally, nation-building referred to the efforts of newly-independent nations, notably the nations of Africa, to reshape colonial territories that had carved out by colonial powers without regard to ethnic or other boundaries. These reformed states would then become viable and coherent national entities.

Nation-building included the creation of superficial national paraphernalia such as flags, anthems, national days, national stadiums, national airlines, national languages, and national myths. At a deeper level, national identity needed to be deliberately constructed by moulding different groups into a nation, especially since colonialism had used divide and rule tactics to maintain its domination.

One of the most successful nation-building efforts has been in Singapore, where it has a mixture of Chinese, south Indian, Malay, Eurasian and other races.

However, many new states were plagued by what Westerners describe as "tribalism", rivalry between ethnic groups within the nation. This sometimes resulted in their near-disintegration, such as the attempt by Biafra to secede from Nigeria in 1970. In Asia, the disintegration of Pakistan into Pakistan and Bangladesh is another example where ethnic differences, aided by geographic distance, tore apart a post-colonial state. The Rwandan genocide and recurrent problems experienced by the Sudan can also be related to a lack of ethnic, religious, or racial cohesion within the nation. It has often proved difficult to unite states with similar ethnic but different colonial backgrounds. Whereas successful examples like Cameroon do exist, failures like Senegambia Confederation demonstrate the problems of uniting Francophone and Anglophone territories.

More recently, nation-building has come to be used in a completely different context, with reference to what has been succinctly described by its proponents as "the use of armed force in the aftermath of a conflict to underpin an enduring transition to democracy."