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Contributions from
the Column
Books and Media
North Korea: the dilemma of humanitarian aid
Nation Building: a concept rife with pitfalls
Knowledge in global development
11/2004 |
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Nation Building:
a concept rife with pitfalls
Jochen Hippler (Ed.):
Nation-Building. Ein Schlüsselkonzept für friedliche Konfliktbearbeitung?
(Nation Building. A key concept for peaceful conflict resolution?)
Bonn, Dietz 2003, 276 pp,
Euro 12.70, ISBN 3-8012-0338-7
Since the 1990s, failing states have been considered a danger for global security. Many experts believe the only option for the international community is to support or initiate the building of stable nation-states. The anthology edited by Jochen Hippler is important because it analyses the contradictions, ambivalences and pitfalls of this strategy.
The first part of the book discusses the concept in a critical light. Hippler points out that the term “nation building” is used both to describe a political process but is also seen as being an objective. Furthermore, the term does not differentiate between the building of a state and that of a nation state. The two processes are not necessarily running parallel to one another. They are inextricably connected to power politics and often accompanied by bloody clashes. Also, the development of a nation can unleash democratic potential or be part of a strategy for political dominance. Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka adds that attempts to form a nation from different social groups often just create or reinforce divisions and conflicts. Thus, the assumption that nation building per se promotes peace is absurd. Also doubtful is the extent to which these processes can be supported from the outside. In case-studies concerning Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Bosnia and Kosovo not one of the authors come to the conclusion that intervention can set the nation building process in motion. The contribution on Bosnia and Kosovo evaluates the influence of Western Europe and the US as disastrous. The other studies consider internal political developments (or structures stipulated by the oil economy in the case of Nigeria) to be pivotal.
All case studies presented are very interesting. Regarding the US occupation of Iraq, Hippler illustrates that the desire for nation building on the one hand and the wish to control post war development on the other, represent an irreconcilable conflict. The contributions by Rangin Dadfar Spanta (on Afghanistan) and Dusan Reljic (on the Balkans) implicitly confirm this. Spanta stresses that the tribal structures, upon which – according to the US and the EU – the reorganisation of Afghanistan should be built, have long been undermined by the war.
However, when he calls for a government of democratically-minded technocrats, one can’t help but ask where they are supposed to come from and from what source they are supposed to draw their power. Maybe at the root of this is just the defiant hope that a peaceful and democratic nation building must somehow be possible, because otherwise bloody chaos would ensue. All the articles are shaped by this approach except the one on Somalia. It sees in the failing of this state also an opportunity: Somali society fulfils a lot of tasks autonomously. State-run structures have to be build bottom-up.
Instruments to support nation building are discussed in the third part. As Jeannette Schade illustrates, NGO activities can strengthen governments but can also weaken them. Heinz-Uwe Schäfer sees military interventions often being impaired by unclear, contradictory and non-transparent political goals hindering nation building. However, none of the essays denies that peaceful forms of nation building from the outside can and should be encouraged. Ulrike Hopp/Adolf Kloke-Lesch describe what the German Development Ministry deems practical: development policy being proceeded in a multilateral coordinated manner and taking into consideration the peculiarities of the country concerned, supporting the setting up of an administration, the constitutional state and the infrastructure, but also reforming security forces, promoting independent media and improving the global economic framework.
Many ideas in the book are not new. Hippler concludes that nation building is a concept to view various instruments together and to reassess them “from the point of view of strengthening political and social integration”. But there lingers a danger: if the concept is used to instigate the reorganisation of foreign societies in one’s own interests, it is counterproductive for both – development policy and security.
Bernd Ludermann
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