Historical Cases and Current Questions in Nation-Building: Still Learning Lessons for - and from - Iraq.

A wide range of efforts has been offered on "winning the peace" in Iraq. This paper examines the judgments of several comparative studies on post-conflict nation-building, and it introduces 1990s Russia as an additional source of "lessons learned". Beyond the widely recommended attention to the large and small technical tasks, or "factors", in the areas of security, democracy, administrative capacity, and economic reconstruction, this paper points to the importance of "dynamics" such as a real and lasting commitment by the United States and the coalition, the emergence of widely supported and particularly talented Iraqi leadership, and increased evidence of "learning" among Iraqi elites and masses and among the coalition and international community. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]