This remark, by former US National Security Adviser Anthony Lake, aptly depicts the policy of cautious engagement embraced by the US administration since the botched Somalia intervention. When US marines landed on the beaches of Mogadishu in December 1992, international euphoria about building a ‘new world order’, led by the lone Superpower, was at its peak due to the demise of communism and the defeat of Saddam Hussein. However much the Somalia debacle may have altered the US approach to nation-building, as Vietnam did to the generation before, it in no way aborted it. The US administration and military have been involved in nation-building and promoting democracy since the middle of the nineteenth century and ‘Manifest Destiny’. Another failed intervention could not reverse over one hundred years of American experience.

Nation-building has indeed evolved from the Cold War days, when it was primarily an American- (or Soviet-) controlled endeavour, to today's occupation jointly run by any combination of the US government, the United Nations, and some member states. The campaign has also progressed, albeit incrementally, due to lessons learned from previous experiences.