Post conflict establishments - Essay Example

Historically, there were conquests and wars geared towards constructing territories that were subject to a supreme ruler. A good example is the Roman Empire that used fierce battles to expand its territory, and everyone was subject to the emperor in Rome. With modernity that has been pushed from the time of capitalists such as Karl Marx and other proponents of economic independence, there has been a shift in how nation building has to be approached (Fukuyama, 1991). With revolutions being witnessed in several nations in the world even in the recent years, the challenge of achieving a national unity has been a major headache to the government authorities as well as the international community.

The world’s superpowers such as the United States together with other international bodies including the United Nations have been in quest of promoting democracy, but several attempts by such external parties have often made the situations worse. A good example is that of two countries – Somalia and East Timor – where use of brutal force and captivity made the countries even more ungovernable and with the recent developments in East Timor, it has been evident that the approach to be taken in solving issues of nation building should be more inclusive.

This paper tries to examine the challenges that the external aggressors, as they are sometimes referred to, have faced in their quest to help nations come out of conflict and develop. It further explores the possible means of eliminating those challenges so that the goal of creating stable and progressive nations is attained. Nation Building and Its Challenges As discussed below, there are various challenges that will have to be resolved to be able to achieve the intent for making nations more united and focused on attaining cultural, ideological and political diversity as proposed by Forman (2002).

To begin with, the question of different cultural influence in the post-war nations has taken a great toll in how the issue of nation building is to be handled. Finding a compromise for often sharply divided tribal groups has not been an easy task as will be discussed in the following section. Socio-Cultural Beliefs and Identity Many of the conflicts in countries have been as a result of conflicts from different groups that may present a religious, ethnic, class or any other social identity. Resolving disputes among a sharply divided people who are historically enemies is a heavy task for external organizations which might not be able to understand the very basic reasons why the people are in constant conflict.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict provides an insight into how religious teachings and ideological differences caused by historical misrepresentations have resulted in a deeply rooted conflict. In some cases such as this conflict, nation building between the two states through conflict resolution and even the constant use of force has not helped in solving the conflicts. However, some nations did succeed in resolving conflict through arbitration even though it was not easy. A good example is South Africa during and after Apartheid.

Whereas Bishop Desmond Tutu and President Nelson Mandela immediately set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission with a sole purpose of restoring peace and justice, their main objective was to grant amnesty to those perpetrators who committed abuses during the Apartheid era. This however was done under stipulated