In October 2000, presidential candidate George W. Bush famously derided the concept of nation building and the suggestion that the U.S. military should take the lead in building up failed states.
"Maybe I'm missing something here," Mr. Bush said in a debate with Democratic rival Al Gore. "I mean, are we going to have some kind of nation-building corps from America? Absolutely not."
Almost eight years later, U.S. interagency "provincial reconstruction teams" are trying to rebuild the economy and government in Afghanistan and Iraq. The U.S. Army's just-revised field manual puts military post-conflict "stability operations" on a par with fighting wars. And the State Department's new Office of Reconstruction and Stabilization is recruiting an elite Civilian Reserve Corps of specialists — engineers, judges, prison wardens, health experts and city planners — to deploy to failed states in a crisis in as little as 48 hours....
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