ABSTRACT
Choice figures prominently in the movement along three interrelated continua concerning economic development, nation building, and state building. The first continuum is bounded on the extremes by poverty and prosperity; the second ranges from a land fractured into hostile communities on to a unified nation; and the third one progresses from uninstitutionalized personal rule to a state with comprehensive civil and military institutions. Although environmental factors weigh most heavily on the ability to create an overarching nation out of competing communities, choice can trump fate.
