Beyond Reconstruction in Afghanistan Lessons from Development Experience

"It is the unfortunate case that policymakers engaged in nation-building have time and again failed to tap existing knowledge about the countries that are the object of their efforts, and lessons from other nation-building exercises. Beyond Reconstruction in Afghanistan begins to correct this deficit by providing invaluable background to the problem of reconstructing one of the world's most troubled countries." - Francis Fukuyama, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies Johns Hopkins University

"This is the best place to start for increasing understanding of the challenges facing those who would engage in 'nation building.' Beyond Reconstruction in Afghanistan provides dispassionate and richly informed analysis of the troubled attempts to reconstruct and restore a devastated land. While every country is unique, the lessons drawn from Afghanistan and other, previous, attempts at nation building clearly have import for Iraq and any other potential cases. And one lesson surely is that caution is wisdom." - Alex Inkeles, Stanford University