No one likes nation-building—the military avoids it, politicians campaign against it, and diplomats ignore it. But in a world with 65 million refugees, pandemics jumping borders, and the persistent threat of trans-national terrorism, is there a way around starting with the basics in international order—a world of functional nation-states that provide for their citizens?

Keith Mines has worked on nation-building in Colombia, El Salvador, Haiti, Somalia, Darfur, Mexico, Israel-Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan, as a special forces officer, diplomat, UN official, and coalition administrator, and now manages programs for the peaceful resolution of conflict at the U.S. Institute of Peace. His book Why Nation-Building Matters: Political Consolidation, Building Security Forces, and Economic Development in Failed and Fragile States makes the case for the beleaguered concept.