Nation-building in t ...

The nation-building/state-building concept grew into significance after the Cold War, when Western countries became more concerned by stabilization efforts or temporary government problems confronting many tragic consequences of civil wars in the developing world. Such tragedies as Rwanda genocide, huge ethnic cleansening in former Yugoslavia, civil wars in Somalia, Haiti, Syria after 2011 and many other countries appeared to be ground-breaking events to such prominent political institutions as European Union, shaken by waves of refugees from war-shattered Syrian provinces. Among key cases analyzed in nation-building context were such fundamental examples as the post-WWII occupations of Germany and Japan.

Wars waged by the U.S. in the XXI century had strong ideological dimension, based on liberal internationalism. George Walker Bush strongly criticized internationalism calling for more realist or national foreign policy before 9/11, then he seeked universal values to provide for stronger military stance during the war against terrorism. Among "new world order" key visions under G. H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton was Kantian liberal peace, with the circle of Western countries expanded by spread of liberal values worldwide. The successes of such a policy encompassed former Soviet satellites and large parts of Latin America. The Middle East liberalization appeared to be less peaceful, and long war in Iraq was even compared to Vietnam. The disappointments coming from the aftermath of Arab Spring (2011), the blood bath in Syria in particular and the rise of ISIS altogether with darker sides of war on terror such as secret CIA prisons, Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib abuse of prisoners, casted a shadow on the image of U.S. democracy itself. Was there a time and place for deeper and adequate academic or social discussion on the value of democracy as a political system itself? Is it still so that the humankind was sharing a conviction, that such a form of government was the final end of any progress or research in terms of what’s best in the government, starting with Plato ending with Karl Popper or even Fukuyama’s end of history? Was liberal democracy spread with the use of armies a just antidote to socialist, nationalist and Marxist dogmas guarded by repressions in the totalitarian world? Finally, is it safe to say, that liberal order could not be the remedy to civil wars in underdeveloped world, sharing the limitations of nation building/state building?