through the spread of american-style institutions. nothing could be more american than to expect the ready support of the process from a mix of local populations, international allies, and of course the united states government. >> one of the things that is quintessentially american is to believe people can come together to make the world a better place and in a representative in powering way. americans believe this even if it doesn't always happen and i argue in the book it's something that comes from our experience at home. our society has and still is a nation building project and we believe it is possible to do that elsewhere. i embrace that on myself i must say. >> how would you organize this book? >> i interviewed the book round number of case studies. the first lays out the general argument that also comes from our own experience in the revolutions i began with madison and washington and i'm afraid

the gardez actually from george washington and i go through a number of cases, reconstruction, philippines and afghanistan. >> can you use the word reconstruction after fascism, reconstruction after world war ii. why? >> i believe part of the american project is to reconstruct other societies. >> empires believe society can change. they have to be dominated and controlled from the hillside. americans believe the rebuild. this is self-interest of as well as help to a stick. as the man on a personal level to use up with the concept of nation building. i don't know how we can escape it. are your do in the book no one can predict the next 41 -- foreign policy process. president will be involved >> has there been a president who hasn't been involved in nation-building, but deeper

period that over salles death in many that have served a short term and that's o.k. there are moments we might be in one of those in a moment but at this particular when americans have gone not to expend their interest is involved in nation-building. >> when has it been successful? >> mostly under two conditions. one when americans are committed to the case they are involved in to we have oversees government partners. one of the two things need to ask ourselves is are we going into a place in the world we believe in the and people there are willing to work with us i argue we shouldn't do nation-building at all times. >> where have we done it successfully? >> germany is the most example after world war ii. japan is another. i argue in the book those are extreme cases and most will not be that successful and we shouldn't hold that is a standard. the best we can hope for is what we had in the reconstruction

after the civil war and the philippines in the early 20th century where we go to a part of our own country or another society that has undergone many major transformations and we continue to make the place a little bit better but it is always a process that's never short and it always involves setbacks as well as forward movements. >> what about a case where such as iraq the u.s. spurred the change in society and now has gone into the reconstruction phase? >> this happened quickly in iraq because the traditional military part of the operation ended quickly and quite frankly and i'm certainly not to say this americans want to prepare for what comes next is a case to be made we could have done a good job in my back and maybe we started to do a good job by 2007, 2008 but we went in without proper planning and unprepared for what we were doing i mentioned we went in before we finished the job in afghanistan and what strikes me

about iraq is this is the only place i've seen where the united states chooses to do two major building operations at the same time generally we try to do one first if we are going to do one, finish it and then move on to another. >> what about afghanistan? >> we had an opportunity in afghanistan and i believe this firmly that in late 2001, 2002 the people of afghanistan in the various tribal groups wanted something different and they had a history in the late 60's and early 70's i go through that in the book about a nation any of us would want to live in but the functioning nation state they want to go back to that. the negotiation process should that and we took our eyes off the ball. we promised nation-building the devoted all of the resources to hire back and we were long ruled that the decision to disconnect is there anyplace else in the u.s. the world is nation-building? >> we should acknowledge that. we were part of a multinational

operation that unseated a long term dictator newmar khadafy had been in power more decades and we have been working closely along with our allies with the traditional council made up of the various forces so we are quite of part of this process to in say we are not in gage we have to do the military active patients or trust ourselves if nation-building feels in libya our military operation will have been a failure as well because if the new arises and we have wasted our time and assets. if we can contribute to a participatory peaceful society the will be to our benefit as well as the people in the region how can we not do nation-building? >> besides our own willingness to nation-building to the other aspects needed or dwelling population and international allies. when have the three of those besides germany and japan would if the three of those things coalesce well?

>> bickel lesson number of the cases i point out so in other words and after de symbol war they wanted stability in this part of the world even those who may have wanted more interest. in the philippines we benefited also from a lot of interests that was a better alternative and the philippines to the german or we benefit from being the new kids on the block in a sense and i believe in afghanistan that in 2001, 2002 we had those advantages as well but the allies supported what we do in afghanistan. including the russians they wanted to stability in afghanistan and we squandered the opportunity so my point is let's be attentive to whatever our allies will and let's take it advantage of those opportunities. >> jeremy was a professor of the university of wisconsin and recently moved down here to the university of texas. >> i'm teaching a course on the

last century what have we learned from the war and reconstruction and nation building activities and also a course on strategy and global policy. how to use religious to make an organization? today and next year i will be teaching the american history survey which i loved having freshman exposing them to this kind of material. estimates on an american history where do you start? >> i tend to break the course around the time of the civil war, but i would love to do your covering of both paths of american history. there's so many issues and all the issues are older again. we are dealing with the crisis of american foreign activity in the 18th century and they, are there today. >> also the author mike henry kissinger and the american century and the foreign relations since 1898. why in that book to start with 1898. it marks a moment when the united states really announces

this dolph on the page. but a lot of powers, major international that is a new breaking point but the civil war >> did henry kissinger purchase a peak in your book? >> i spent a lot of time interviewing him and she's an amazing figure. i have most feelings about him as most people do but i don't think anyone who can not laugh and i share that respect. >> professor at duty. his most recent book liberty -- garden in america's nation-building from the founders to obama.

>> book tv saddam of university of texas austin professor to talk about his book and the israeli secret service and against its part of book tv's college serious. >> you are watching booktv on c-span2 and we are the university of texas in austin interviewing professors who are also joining us. he is the author of this book of the israeli secret services and the struggle against terrorism. professor, first of all what