Under George W. Bush, the U.S. engaged in two costly exercises in “state building,” Afghanistan and Iraq. Both failed miserably and gave rise to Islamist extremist. In Building the Nation, defense analyst Heather Selma Gregg critiques America’s failure to ask the people of those nations what kind of state they wanted. In Iraq, especially grievous was the exclusion of formerly ruling Ba’ath Party members, which denied the new regime expertise, alienated the majority Sunni population and gave rise to ISIS. Gregg writes persuasively on the importance of “national entrepreneurs—artists, authors, socialites, philanthropists” and others who “foster a sense of national unity.” In the U.S., their efforts included the National Park system, the Statue of Liberty and foundational myths that bound an increasingly heterogeneous population together. Knowing how to build nation-states is crucial in an age of transnational terrorists who will fill the void—as did ISIS—if a nation fails.
