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The History and Contradictions of State Building The past 10 years have witnessed a revival of interest in state building and “international protectorates”. Historical precedents contain important lessons for contemporary practice but today’s state-building engineers are often ill-acquainted with these lessons. Nor are they mindful of the fundamental contradictions that encumber state-building initiatives. The political project of reconstructing collapsed states, it becomes apparent, is not only ideologically freighted; it also ignores what historical sociologists have taught us about the complex processes that govern the construction of states and nations.