FROM THE PUBLISHER
Noah Feldman argues that to prevent nation building from turning into a paternalistic, colonialist charade, we urgently need a new, humbler approach. Nation builders should focus on providing security, without arrogantly claiming any special expertise in how successful nation-states should be made. Drawing on his personal experiences in Iraq as a constitutional adviser, Feldman offers enduring insights into the power dynamics between the American occupiers and the Iraqis, and tackles issues such as Iraqi elections, the prospect of successful democratization, and the way home.

Noah Feldman is also the author of:
After Jihad: America and the Struggle for Islamic Democracy

FROM THE CRITICS
Robert Kagan - The New York Times
Scholars don't often get to test their theories in the field. Feldman did in Iraq. As a constitutional adviser, Feldman helped shape Iraq's Transitional Administrative Law, the interim constitution and political road map for the country's transition from occupied territory to sovereign, democratic nation. ''What We Owe Iraq: War and the Ethics of Nation Building'' is a product of that experience. The book, like its author, is an unusual blend: part theoretical treatise, part political analysis, part memoir. Above all, it is a plea to the American conscience to take seriously the responsibility the United States has assumed to help the Iraqi people build the democracy Feldman believes they need and deserve.

Richard A. Clarke - The Washington Post
Noah Feldman, a law professor at New York University and a former senior constitutional adviser to the Coalitional Provisional Authority (CPA), provides a cogent analysis of U.S. efforts in Iraq in What We Owe Iraq. Feldman details the behind-the-scenes power politics of the U.S. occupation and delivers a persuasive appeal for a more grassroots approach to nation building -- that is, an approach seen by most Iraqis as legitimized by local input. He argues that nation-building can be an effective long-term strategy to fight terrorism if its purpose is to create stable democracies. Feldman surmises, correctly, that terrorism festers not only in weak states but also in strong but undemocratic ones such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Publishers Weekly
Though there are books on the "how-to" of nation-building, there are none on the ethical theories behind it, says Feldman, author of After Jihad: America and the Struggle for Islamic Democracy and former senior constitutional adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. Feldman, who teaches law at NYU, does not address the legality or wisdom of the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime, nor the question of when international intervention is justified. He includes some useful anecdotes from his Iraqi tenure, though he doesn't aim to produce a comprehensive account of political negotiations there. But his knowledge of the facts on the ground does lead him to conclude that the U.S. needs to stay in Iraq for democracy to take; his book, based on lectures delivered at Princeton in April 2004, constructs an ethics for doing so. Considering trusteeship, he argues that the American presence in Iraq should facilitate public speech, assembly and participation in administration. He also warns Americans to abandon the notion that they know how to produce a functioning democracy, something that has already come to pass. Written with tempered passion and a grounded sense of the possibilities, Feldman's book nicely bridges theory and practice, even as some events outpace it. Agent, Heather Schroder of ICM. (Nov.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.