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... using mendacity in exaggerating the military potential of Hussein, his ability to launch missiles and use nuclear weapons. Alterman indicates, Most particularly, Bush has lied consistently about Iraq's nuclear capabilities as well as its ability to deliver missiles. Alterman asserts that the result is that the United States will be again involved in a war that will result in lost lives and respect.
Much like previous invasions in Vietnam, this war subverts U. S. democracy when the media replaces information and skepticism with propaganda and prevarication (Dunn, 39). The failures of the media in discovering the untold story of the Iraq conflict - and the U.
S. political and economic participation in the Middle East - could also contain questions of whether or not American President and Vice-President Dick Cheney actually planned to attack Afghanistan and Iraq long before terrorist atrocities killed U. S. civilians (Gelb, 221). From the critical point of view, fundamental to a successful democracy becomes the ability of its individuals to be given truthful and correct information regarding their government and the actions that government carries out on their behalf. Americans cannot participate in a system consisting of propaganda and falsehood, which leads the society to believe what is not true or is only part of a larger story.
Simultaneously, Americans must be able to abandon the policies of their president and switch to practice of civil disobedience when they see impious policies coming to realization and hurting others. Although critical and controversial aspects of Iraq could be examined continuously, in contemporary context the world community faces the major dilemma, considering its importance for people and victims, the problem of liberated countrys reconstruction. The history of nation-building yields no ultimate policy patterns that can be engraved in stone, however it does offer proverbs obtained from experience that can invoke wisdom in current practice, and from which consistent policies can be formulated in the future. The clearest lessons include the following: Recent experiences with post-conflict reconstruction have instructed nation builders that unless they can guarantee security and a peaceful settlement of conflict, little progress can be attained in establishing a strong national government, redeveloping infrastructure, and constructing the foundation for economic growth. After the US assaults of both Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003, continuing guerilla warfare, terrorism, lawlessness, and ethnic and political dilemma slowed procedures for nation-building and destabilized the legitimatizes of the provisional occupation organizations and of the fledgling transition authorities. The process of ensuring security includes not only developing military and police forces that act neutrally toward former conflicting parties, but also on demobilizing former fighters and reintegrating them into society by providing them with the opportunity to obtain a decent living in the civilian community.
Nation builders are more likely to achieve desired social and political purposes if their long-term objectives are acknowledged in official statements rather than creeping in the shadows of a hidden agenda. While it is true that donors risk giving offense by appearing to interfere with basic decisions that inhere in independent sovereign nations, the opposite allegation - that they are doing so secretly - is just as likely to be destructive without having the equal prospect of attaining desired results. Multiple donors do not always have common opinion on objectives, much less on their programs, but such diversity is not necessarily a disfavor, even when it permits the intended beneficiary to place donors in a competitive situation with each other. Recognizing the differences among them and maximizing access to the best of them are considered to be adequate strategies for donors as well as recipients of aid, encouraging a sense of comparative advantage for both sides. Even with a comprehensive and visible plan for redevelopment, if donors lack strong coordinating schemes and methods for carrying it out, their interests will produce contradicting results. Donors need to watch their own administrative practices as well as those of the host country.
Their presence abroad is often a useful means of training civil servants and suggesting organizational improvements, but its temporary aspect often causes an internal brain-drain because higher levels of compensation and responsibility usually draw attention of qualified personnel away from governmental posts. Nation-building requires programs to quickly develop a strong state and reinforce the capability of the governing regime to guarantee security, diminish violent conflict, discover ways to reconcile conflicting ethnic or religious parties, protect human rights, create economic opportunities, provide basic services, monitor corruption, respond effectively to emergencies, and handle poverty and inequality. One problem in Cambodia, for example, was that although external aid was vital in preventing a weak government from collapsing entirely, donor efforts to produce economic growth during the post-conflict period were destabilized by the countrys weak absorptive capacity. Similar problems harassed early nation-building in Afghanistan and later in Iraq. Beyond ensuring security, strengthening democracy constitute the professed purpose of most nation-building programs; but it may become self-deceiving to substitute transitional objectives like elections or political parties for desired ends like responsible government and the rule of law. Sometimes, in a foreshortened perception of their ultimate strategic objectives, donors support procedures that seem democratic without concern for their consequences.
Experience suggests that these devices can abort the stable growth of democratic institutions and competitive market systems. Pushing for premature elections in Cambodia and Liberia in the wake of devastating conflicts restored former combatant leaders to power and legitimized polarized contests between ethnic factions in Bosnia. The most important requirement in nation-building is to share the major decisions regarding future development with the host government and the people. In reviewing its reconstruction efforts in Uganda during the late 1980 s and early 1990 s, for example, the World Rank concluded that its economic rebuilding efforts could have been improved by giving more attention to consensus building. It found that reconstruction policies must consider the dynamics in surrounding countries and the need for cooperation with neighboring governments.
Experience in Afghanistan indicates that where ethnic, religious, or other identities fueled conflict, donors must consider the impact of their post-conflict relationships on reconstruction. There may be no standard sequence of development among the various elements in the nation-builders model, but comparative study of newly-developed countries reaffirms two preconditions to a viable state: a competitive economy and a competent government. Nation-building in Central America depended heavily on international organizations abilities to help new governments achieve rapid economic growth. Economic assistance programs that encourage local entrepreneurship are more likely to avoid the accusation of neo-colonialism than those that are dominated by public or private organizations of donors. In order to succeed, nation-building policies in Iraq have to focus on developing human capital, reducing poverty, promoting social equity, and alleviating social problems while at the same time strengthening the economy and rebuilding the state. In its post-conflict macroeconomic reform program for El Salvador, the World Bank more clearly recognized the need to address the requirements of the health and education sectors in order to develop human resources and support economic growth policies.
The Asian Development Hanks experience in developing and conflict-torn countries in Asia suggests that when economies begin to grow, governments must adopt social protection programs to reduce poverty and vulnerability among segments of the population that may not be able to benefit immediately. Of all the specific reforms introduced in transitional countries, those relating to the rights of women are likely to be the most far-reaching. Even if there had been no such event as the terrorist attacks on the World Trade (! enter on September 11, 2001, history reinforces the probability that the US government will engage in post-combat reconstruction and in pre-emptive nation-building policies, regardless of preferences for an isolated posture in the face of disturbing developments abroad. The frequency of military incursions and post-conflict reconstructions alone argues for the United States and international organizations to adopt standing policies to improve their stumbling performance in nation-building. Explicit, coherent, and transparent policies can draw on lessons from the past to help establish priorities and guide the coordination and integration of activities during chaotic, confusing times, but they must be applied with due regard for the unique circumstances shaped by different cultural, political, and economic conditions in each country that requires reconstruction.
Conventional relationships are awkward during nation-building processes. The host governments are often incompletely integrated into their own societies and in any case are imperfectly structured to carry out their new functions. They are as likely to resent as they are to welcome offers of assistance. Indeed, both sides in these relationships suffer from the embarrassment of wartime defeat or from symptoms of underdevelopment; the tender nerves of sovereignty are especially delicate during these times. When nation-building responsibilities are regarded as a distinct policy, they can enjoy a coherence and stability that will both reduce their frantic improvisations and enhance their ultimate impact. If they were recognized as coherent matters of policy, the characteristics and needs of countries outside the periphery of diplomatic priority could be better known.
Alternative plans and designs could be clarified in advance of emergency; capital and human resources for a finite future could be calculated. Administrative and organizational approaches could be explored in advance, and desired end states could be defined so as to envisage suitable strategies for withdrawal. Bibliography Gelb, Leslie H. ; Rosenthal, Justine A... , The Rise of Ethics in Foreign Policy. Foreign Affairs, Sep/Oct 2003, Vol. 82 Issue 3 Dunn, David, Myths, Motivations and Misunderestimations: the Bush Administration and Iraq. International Affairs, Mar 2003, Vol. 79 Issue 2 Mayer, Arno J... , The Just War Case for the War. An Independent Socialist Magazine, Sep 2003, Vol. 54 Issue 10 Weigel, George. , America, Old Europe, 10 / 31 / 2003, Vol. 188
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Research essay sample on Political And Economic Nation Building
