Public Administration Activity: Nation Building Research Paper

Introduction

The wars in Africa and other poverty-stricken countries in the world are not as a result of their own doing, but due to the activities of the world’s wealthy nations. These rich countries carry on their nation building activities making use of the weak as for their own benefits. As such, the world will never be void of poor countries despite their spirited efforts. This paper will therefore discuss the process of nation building in countries and the consequences faced by the countries where nation building is not a success.

Discussion

Many political and social writers have expressed their concern and views regarding nation building, but in order to understand the concept we must first define a nation. A nation is a group of people that are held together by the same ideas, principles or ideologies. These principal can be religious, political, cultural, and social and normally these groups use the same language. With this definition in mind, then the process of nation building can easily be understood. Political and social writers have given two schools of thought or general approaches to the issues of nation building. According to Stephenson (2005) nation building is seen as a reconstruction of failed states through aid and other forms of developmental assistance. The other approach to nation building is the use of military force to restore the democracy of a state. The United States is one perfect example of a country that has succeeded in nation building; this is because the people were able to unite under a democratic state despite theirs differences. The people of the United States had different origins and this meant they had different ideologies but they were able to unite into one state. Despite the difficulties the initial 13 states were united into one state after a long time therefore making nation building successful (Tocqueville, 2001). Nation building is a very difficult process and this was no exception to the United States, and to some extent it was worse people as stated earlier the people living in the United States had different origins. Nation building was not achieved easily in the United States since its history is marked with many wars, one of them being the civil war of 1861. This is the only way in which nation building could have been achieved.

On the other hand, in its quest to make nation building a success, the United States used other nations. For example, a lot of “poor” countries depend on the United States for assistance. Hence during the war in Somalia the United States came in handy to provide its military to restore the peace. This is in reference to the second approach given by political and social writers. When the United States took over Somalia, she wanted to restore peace and democracy in that state. And in order to do this, Somalia had to undergo some reconstruction in terms of its economy, politics and the society as a whole. This would only be achieved by giving Somalia the much-needed aid, Farah (1993). The countries that give the aid dictate how and where the aid will be used. This then means that the real needs of the people are not meant and this result in unrest. For example in Somalia, reconstruction has not taken place, that is people are still living in refugee camps, the roads are almost impassable and the society in general is in conflict.

Nation building can be seen as a way of controlling other sovereign nations. For example due to the aid provided to Somalia by the United States, she gets to decide every that happens in Somalia. Therefore the United States has control not only within her boundary but elsewhere. This is another way in which the countries that have achieved nation building take advantage of others that have not (Walter, 1997).

Conclusion

Nation building can be seen as a positive thing, like when a country wants to achieve democracy but on the other hand when other countries take advantage of others all in the name of nation building, then this same process becomes tricky.

References

1. Anderson, Mary. (1999). “Do No Harm.” London: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
2. Mohammed, Farah. (1993). The Preferred Future development In Somalia, Michigan: Vikas publishing house
3. Tocqueville, Alexis de. (2001). DemocracyinAmerica. New York: Signet Books
4. Walter, Sheldon.(1997). Learning from Somalia: The Lesson of Armed Humanitarian Intervention. New York: Westview Press.
5. Nation building. Web.