Can a Nation Be Built? Not with weapons, says Steven Horwitz

In the wake of both the collapse of the Soviet empire and the U.S. interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have seen a lively debate on the topic of nation-building.  In particular, many people who are ordinarily skeptical about the benevolent power of the U.S. government at home have come to believe it can accomplish what they see as the noble task of nation-building in areas of the world that have been plunged into some degree of chaos by political upheaval and/or war.
Although the phrase nation-building sounds much more constructive and well-intentioned than the destruction and death that has normally accompanied the use of American military power around the world, attempts to build nations are just as likely to fail.  What the nation-builders overlook is a distinction made by Ludwig von Mises almost 100 years ago:  A nation is not necessarily the same as “the State.”  In his much under-appreciated little book Nation, State, and Economy, Mises argued that “nations” are defined not by geography or by political institutions, but most fundamentally by language and other similar cultural institutions that provide a basis for “mutual understanding.
More at:
”http://www.thefreemanonline.org/headline/can-a-nation-be-built/#