Nation Building in Iraq & Afghanistan

There are many turning points in the history of the world; the most recent turn in the contemporary global history and especially nation building being 11th September 2001. The nation building literature around the world whether conducted by the internal forces or the external pressures shows that the most recent example and case studies can be Iraq and Afghanistan. In the aftermath of 9/11 both the countries can be case studies of local nation building UN nation building and the US nation building. All the scholars who are expert on nation building have studied Iraq and Afghanistan from the later perspective except the local writers who have concentrated on a local approach. This is because post 2001 period is not the beginning of nation building in Iraq and Afghanistan. The history of both states witnessed nation building efforts since the formation in Iraq in 1932 and Afghanistan since 1747. Many ups and downs in the graphs of nation building in the pre- 2001 period gives vast literature to the Iraqi and Afghan nation builders to find the answer to the question—what went wrong?. These can be the main source for them to find out the root causes of the challenges.