By Program
On Monday, February 7, Jeremi Suri, E. Gordon Fox Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, spoke at the LBJ School, hosted by the Masters in Global Policy Colloquium series and the Strauss Center. Professor Suri discussed his upcoming book, Liberty’s Surest Guardian.
In his talk, Dr. Suri discussed the American tradition of nation building, which goes back to the time of George Washington. In fact, Washington’s 1796 farewell speech addresses questions of foreign policy and the degree to which the United States should involve itself in the affairs of other states.
The American approach to government, Dr. Suri explained, is exceptional; not necessarily good or bad, simply different from any other country’s approach. This is due to nature of America’s founding and has built a presumption in American consciousness of the appropriate ways to govern and work towards supporting and building other nation-states. In short, Americans look to build governing structures like their own.
Dr. Suri cited several cases to illustrate his point, beginning with the Freedmen’s Bureau, established at the end of the Civil War to create a structure for Southerners to participate in representative government. While it was in many ways a failure, it created a foundation for American thinking about building and rebuilding nations in post-war environments. Dr. Suri went on to discuss President Taft’s role in developing an education system in the Philippines and reconstruction in post-World War II Germany, tying U.S. strategy in those instances to the approaches both in Vietnam and in post-9/11 Afghanistan.
Based on his analysis, Dr. Suri’s lessons for U.S. nation building in the future include building a political process after victory, investing in multiple relationship, emphasizing basic problem solving and increasing participation from the local population.
