We are a nation-building people, and Jeremi SuriNobel Fellow and leading light in the next generation of policy makerslooks to America's recent history to see what America has to offer failed states around the worldnow in paperback. Nation-building is in America's DNA. It dates back to the days of the Revolution when the founding fathers invented the concept of Popular Sovereigntythe idea that you cannot have a national government without a collective will. The framers of the Constitution fervently hoped that this concept would become contagious, spreading around the world and thus ensuring America's security. They initiated a policy of cautious nation-building, hoping not to conquer other countries, but to build a world of stable, self-governed societies that would support America's way of life. Yet no other country has created more problems for itself and others by interfering with foreign societies and pursuing impractical changes. Nation-building can only work when the indigenous people "own it," not when it is forced upon them. In this timely and urgent book, Jeremi Suri explains where America has erred and where it succeededin the Philippines, in post WWII Europe, in Vietnamand offers a bullet-pointed plan for how to move forward.

America has something unique to offer the world; we must learn from our past how to do it right.