WERE GEORGE W. BUSH AND DONALD RUMSFELD COMPLICIT IN THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY?
Lessons from the past: The American record in nation-building Minxin Pei and Sara Kasper, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, April 11, 2003 The record shows that democratic nation-building is among the most ambitious and difficult of foreign policy undertakings for the United States. Of the 16 over the past century, democracy was sustained in only 4 countries ten years after the departure of American forces. Two of these followed total defeat and surrender (in World War II) and two were in tiny countries (Grenada and Panama). The record also reveals that unilateral nation-building by the United States has an even lower success rate perhaps because unilateralism has led to the creation of surrogate regimes and direct American administration during the interim post-conflict period. The use of interim surrogate regimes has produced a record of complete failure. No American-supported surrogate regime made the transition to democracy and only one case of direct American administrat