Weight of Culture in Nation Building

摘要

The United States has conducted nation building in nearly every conflict in which it has been involved. Some of these endeavors were successful, such as Japan and Germany following World War II, while others were not. Although the reasons for success or failure are myriad, the author asks the following question: How important is it for the occupying force to understand the culture of the society that it occupies, and how can this understanding affect the outcome. Iraqi culture is radically different from U.S. culture and so it has become an easy scapegoat for any apparent lack of progress by U.S. forces in postwar operations. The lack of progress is attributed to a fundamental misunderstanding of Iraqi culture. However, successful nation building in a culture that is very distant from the United States is not without precedent. This work analyzes the U.S. occupation of Japan, a nation culturally distant from the United States, to determine what went right in that occupation and what lessons learned there can be applied to Iraq. The author also offers case studies conducted by RAND in which cultural understanding appeared to play a minor role in the final outcome.