ABSTRACT
Nation-building is the process of constructing a political community that has the primary claim on the loyalty of its citizens and, through the related process of state-building, creating a viable nationwide system of public authority. Etzioni's concerns have been validated by those who were placed in charge of some of America's recent attempts at nation-building. Etzioni's sociological investigations into how political communities are formed and gain salience has served to provide an empirical foundation for his policy recommendations. Etzioni's academic research on building political communities, while enhancing his status as a leading scholar in sociology, did not have much impact on American policymakers. Etzioni has advanced similar proposals for dealing with Afghanistan. A critical point he made was that US efforts to strengthen a central authority at the expense of tribal communities were ill-advised. The United States is now faced with the possibility that both Iraq and Afghanistan will completely fragment after the departure of Western forces.
