Military intervention, democratization, and post-conflict political stability

Opponents of an aggressive democratization policy respond that the US no longer has the capacity or will to do what was done in Japan.

Washington does not have the capacity for political follow-through across a broad spectrum of post-conflict or post-intervention requirements. As Afghanistan and Iraq illustrate, the U.S. government lacks the interagency mechanisms, institutional memory, doctrine, and committed personnel and budget resources necessary for rebuilding failed states and collapsed regimes.