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Protection Cities
A Strategy for Nation‐Building
Version 1.0
The idea of building nations from failed states through winning hearts and minds should be
abandoned as beyond the reach of present control mechanisms. The paper argues for the idea of
building permanent camps for women and children which could form the core of new states.
Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 3
Present Nation‐Building Strategy ............................................................................................................ 4
The City‐Founding Strategy, Women Children Protection City ............................................................... 5
Phase 1 – Founding. ............................................................................................................................ 5
Phase 2 – Seeding ................................................................................................................................ 6
Phase 3 – Growth ................................................................................................................................ 6
Phase 4 – Local Dominance ................................................................................................................. 7
Phase 5 – National Dominance ........................................................................................................... 7
Differences between the Nation‐Building and City‐Founder Strategies ................................................. 8
Issues to be Resolved Prior to Initiation of WCPC Program .................................................................. 10
Religion .............................................................................................................................................. 10
Procreation ........................................................................................................................................ 10
City Governance ................................................................................................................................ 10
Local Customs .................................................................................................................................... 11
Laws ................................................................................................................................................... 11
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 11
Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................... 11
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Introduction
Since the end of the Cold War the world has seen multiple attempts to use varying degrees of
military force as the means to bring stability to areas plagued by severe unrest or civil war. Efforts
basically fall into two categories: peacekeeping or nation building. Peacekeeping are smaller efforts
usually performed under the UN umbrella. Peacekeeping is of limited scope but is frequently
deployed, in the period 1948‐2009 there have been a total of 63 UN peacekeeping missions. Nation
building efforts are larger and more complex operations which involve not just keeping and
preserving peace but involve putting a failed state back on its feet. Examples are Bosnia, Afghanistan
and Iraq (Fukuyama, 2004). The scope of this paper mainly concerns the operations known as nation
building while the described practices could find very good use in the earlier stages of peacekeeping
missions.
Presently, the results of nation‐building usually fall much short of expectations. This article will
present a short analysis of the problems associated with nation building before describing an
alternative strategy for management of failed states.
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Present NationBuilding Strategy
The basic model of present nation‐building is based on the successful allied occupation of Germany
and Japan in the aftermath of World War 2. Both countries were equipped with democratic
institutions and after a few years the economies of both countries recovered while democracy
gained a permanent foothold.
Nation‐building requires military occupation of the country in question, with a sufficiently large
military contingent to provide stability and enable civil reconstruction to begin. The military footprint
needs to be large enough to prevent civil war and enable the occupying forces to hold elections –
cementing the change of regime and building the authority of the newly installed government.
In order to win the hearts and minds of the local population, various civil reconstruction programs
are initiated. As the area is still far from secure, a hefty security premium is placed on all activity
associated with the program, significantly increasing the overall cost of the effort.
With hindsight we can safely say that both Germany and Japan were never subjected to nation‐
building – they were very much functional nation states before the occupation. What the allies did
was to safeguard democracy as the method of government and change the economical expansion
model from military extortion to free trade capitalism.
Later attempts of nation building have fallen short of expectations. The countries involved never
seem to escape a vicious circle of weak governments, chronic civil or ethnic unrest, dysfunctional
institutions, excessive population growth and economies dominated by petroleum or drugs.
The problems with the nation‐building approach are by now well known:
• Huge financial costs
• Limited success in achieving goal of state building
• Politically costly
In spite of difficulties and set‐backs, the present policy is maintained, presumably due to lack of
alternative choices.
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A New Strategy Women Children Protection Cities
The women children protection cities (WCPC) strategy consists of founding a refugee camp based
around an airport and gradually building this camp into a city.
The strategy consists of the following phases:
Phase 1 – Founding.
A military force is sent to a conflict area. The force secures a relatively flat area of minimum five
square kilometers. All native population must be removed from this area. It is therefore highly likely
that the founding sites will be located away from existing population centers. When the area is
secured and completely depopulated a surrounding fence is built to keep the local population away.
Next a small forward airfield is built – typically large enough for landings of C‐130 Hercules type of
aircraft. The construction of a few necessities like water supply and basic sanitation takes place. After
construction of sufficient ditches, walls, watchtowers, bunkers and minefields the majority of the
forces involved withdraw before the next phase.
No attempt is made to control the territories surrounding the city. Except from checking of perimeter
defenses, the forces that founded the city shall make no attempt to patrol outside the city or
interfere with local criminal activities like drug production. Combating terrorism is better left to
drones and special forces, both based elsewhere. No attempt is made to change the governmental
system in the surrounding state, no matter how dysfunctional.
The city is now founded. The city does not recognize any law of the nation state where it is placed.
No official from the nation state is allowed inside – military or civilian. No taxes are ever paid to the
nation state. The laws or customs of the surrounding state does not have any validity inside the city.
Free and uninhibited aerial transport is demanded from the surrounding nation state or it will face
military retaliation. No extraction of natural resources with the exception of water may take place
inside city borders. This requirement is necessary to prevent allegations of imperialism and to limit
the involvement of powers which are not interested in anything except exploitation of natural
resources – for example China.
The city has three areas:
1. Airport area. Off limits to anyone who does not work there.
2. Citizen area. Only military personnel, employees and citizens can enter. Strict and total
enforcement of gate and ID control. Education, military training and general living goes on
here.
3. Market area. Accessible to citizens, employees and members of the local tribes, nationalities,
tourists etc. Place for trade, internet cafés, hotels, logistic companies, voluntary help
organizations etc. The market area is also open to international companies. Security is
provided by city forces. As always the focus is on 100 per cent control so the market area
may never grow beyond the possibility to fully control it. This will strictly limit the size of the
market area for the first 10‐15 years.
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Phase 2 – Seeding
The founding city now accepts women and children as citizens. Women of all ages and boys up to a
certain age (8?) are accepted. It may seem inhumane not to accept anyone in need but it is essential
to keep grown and adolescent men away from the founding city. There is simply no other way to
escape the dysfunctional local cultural pattern. Admitting adolescent and grown men into the city
will simply turn it into a forward supply base for the dominating ethnic group.
The women and children are put to work building their own houses as well as schools, medical
centers etc. etc. Education of all inhabitants must be intensive. All citizens must be taught to read
and write. Ability to communicate in English is essential to success in later stages. Weapons training
and military indoctrination of women and boys are equally vital for self‐defense. While it may sound
militaristic and counterproductive to train the citizens to use weapons, remember that if political
support for the scheme is veining in the founding nation, it is vital that the inhabitants of the city are
capable of self defense. Vocational training of different sorts should also be given to all. Note ‐ no use
is ever made of local male interpreters.
In an international perspective and in order to prevent immigration, the inhabitants of the city keep
their nationality. Local ID‐cards are issued to identify citizens as WCPC citizens. Inhabitants may off
course freely associate with members of outside communities, but due to the risk to their safety this
is likely to be limited to the market area of the city.
On no occasion shall the military force that founded the city issue new nationality to the citizens. On
no occasion shall citizens travel to the country of the city founders or their allies as this will simply
turn them into asylum seekers or economic refugees.
Phase 3 – Growth
Admittance of new citizens will continue at a controlled pace for the next decades. If any founding
city receives a flood of applicants then new cities must be founded in the area. If recruitment is slow
it could mean the concept must be marketed differently. The idea is to have many small cities, not a
few large. The vital question is always control. With too large cities control is lost. With too quick
influx of refugees control is lost. With no filtering out of local males control is lost. The city‐founding
strategy must therefore have small cities instead of large, control growth and filter away any grown
or adolescent local males.
During the growth phase the market area of the city will grow and provide job opportunities for
members of the city. The success of this stage is very dependent on the level and direction of
education provided in the earlier phases.
Growth of the city can occur in three ways.
Supply of food. Here the city act as the only source of food in the area and will therefore naturally
attract applicants.
Supply of safety. In many failed states, food may be short but is not a critical shortage compared to
safety. In states such as Congo and Afghanistan, the most pressing need for women and children is
likely to be security.
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Supply of wealth. In states where women are considered the property of the family and are routinely
traded as wives, the WCPC state is able to provide a safe haven for women wishing to determine
their own fate. Additionally, the WCPC most likely is the richest entity around, able to simply
purchase as many new citizens as needed, in the form of children and nubile women. If employed
consequently, this recruitment strategy will lower the population growth significantly in the areas
around the WCPC, an important factor in attaining long term stability.
Phase 4 – Local Dominance
Approximately 10 to 15 years after founding the oldest admitted boys have turned into young men.
Having undergone military training since childhood they are now able to take over the security
functions of the market area and later the city itself. Being able to speak both the local language as
well as communicate with the city founding forces the security of the area should increase allowing
for a significant growth both of the geographical area, the range of activities and the financial income
of the city. The city will at some phase 4 stage be self sufficient, the airport may now be further
extended, not to provide airlift of supplies but to allow for normal passenger and cargo transport. At
some point in this phase the original force of founding soldiers may withdraw completely. The
soldiers originating from the founder city should be the most capable of suppressing unrest in the
area around the WCPC.
Phase 5 – National Dominance
As the decades pass it is highly unlikely that successive generations of city inhabitants will find it
appealing to be ruled by the nation‐state in which they are located. The rulers of Somalia, Ivory
Coast, Afghanistan, Haiti and Yemen were primitive and violent a hundred years ago and barring a
miracle they will be just as primitive and bloodthirsty a hundred years from now.
To prevent being ruled by the elites of the surrounding nation the various founder‐cities could create
alliances between them to either to defend themselves and continue self‐rule of to gain control of
the nation state as a whole.
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Differences between the NationBuilding and CityFounder Strategies
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prevent drug cultivation and country has a problem with drugs? Try
production. Efforts face limiting consumption – not production.
interference with winning
hearts and minds.
Timeline Very short. Preferably Recognizes that building a decent and
operations need to be stable civilization is an effort that will span
completed before the next several generations.
election.
Interaction with Interaction with elected stooges Weak interaction with anyone – even
local – see presidents of both Iraq Taliban or Hamas on a business level.
“government” and Afghanistan.
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Issues to be Resolved Prior to Initiation of WCPC Program
Religion
Many of the area’s most likely to be subject to WCPC founding are likely to presently be primarily
Islamic. What will the western founding powers attitude towards this religion be? If no effort is made
to check the religion the civilization‐process may be in vain as the citizens will succumb to dogmatic
religious indoctrination from outside WCPC borders. Most likely a method will have to found that
maintains a symbolic Islamic faith but introduces a large element of interpretation as well as
acceptance of modern lifestyle and methods of thinking. A method could be devised for supplying
adequate numbers of modernized imams and mullahs to fulfill the citizens’ spiritual need while at
the same time being certain that modern ideas like scientific rationality, individualism and market
mechanisms are in control of politics, culture and education. As local men are prohibited from
entering the city resident area the preachers must be found from the country of the founding power
or educated in the WCPC. This makes it necessary for western powers to establish some form of
rationalized Islam as well as founding a program to educate preachers for this religion. Alternatively
the female citizens may be taught to be their own religious leaders – a kind of Wicca‐Islam. The
outcome of such a process is likely to be highly unpredictable.
If attempts are made to deconstruct the religion the whole process can backfire and recruitment to
the founding cities will come to a complete halt. This leaves the WCPC with the option of waiting
until the situation deteriorates to a point were even cross‐religious practices do not hinder
recruitment or actively purchase citizens from the local population. It is possibly that rationalization
of Islam is metaphysically impossible (Sørlander, 2008) and that initiation of new citizens into the
WCPC must include procedures to adequately break with the religion – a modern Inquisition.
Procreation
If the citizen area is a place for woman and children only, a problem arises as woman wants to have
more children. As a source of sperm the forces of the founding nation could be used but this will only
serve to complicate matters with regards to nationality of the children. The idea of the founding
cities is not to produce social clients in western countries nor is it to make the demographic or
genetic disruption of the local population larger than necessary. Two sources of sperm exists: either
from the boy children already admitted to the city – even if it could take some years before it is
available – or from outside male population. The outside male population could either meet citizen
women in the market area or contribute to a sperm bank. As casual meetings in the market area is
likely to be in severe conflict with local customs the sperm bank option is likely better – at least for
predominantly Islamic areas.
As control of procreation is of importance to the educational process, a high number of children
limits the time a mother can spend on education, methods of preventing unwanted pregnancies are
likely to be necessary.
City Governance
Who rules the city? In the first few years the city will have to be ruled by the military of the founding
force. Later degrees and variations on democracy may be tried out – it is most likely to follow the
first batch of students to complete schooling in the WCPC. These will gradually learn democracy –
first through theory and class interaction before gradual introduction to WCPC democracy. The
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introduction of democracy is likely to be gradual as more students emerge from WCPC schools with a
reasonable amount of education, at the same time the security needs of the city is taken over by the
citizens and troops from the founder nation are slowly withdrawn.
Local Customs
What should be done with the local customs largely incompatible with a modern society? Female
circumcision, arranged marriages and polygamy are but some of the most obvious examples.
Monogamy is one of the greatest inventions of mankind – in western culture this dates back to the
early Christians who introduced it. Think of the opposite – a polygamist society where a few men
marry a lot of women. Remaining men have little or no opportunity to marry unless civil unrest
increase to such a level that kidnappings and rape opens as means of marriage and procreation. Such
a society can never be anything but semi‐stable with great internal stresses. So monogamy has to be
introduced even if it is in discord with local or religious customs. Female circumcision is also a
practice that unlikely to have a place in even a semi‐modern society. Whether or not the Islamic
dresses burqa and hijab are compatible with a modern society remains to be seen. Most likely a
multitude of different WCPC cities will try different approaches and it will simply be a result of trying
and failing to see what works and what does not.
Laws
Originally the laws governing the city will have to be from the country that provided the forces to
found the city. Either at founding or at some later stage the laws will and must change to allow for
adopting local situations. The legal needs of the WCPC will also be hugely different from the founder
nation as the WCPC is in the beginning is nothing more than a dusty camp.
Do keep in mind that using western law in the market areas of the cities will allow both domestic and
international companies to operate in third world countries under western law – a massive
improvement from the present day situation were companies from developed countries operate in a
slow and corrupt legal environment.
Conclusion
Presented in this paper is an alternative strategy aimed at stabilizing areas plagued by chaos while
limiting both the political and financial cost of such an operation. The WCPC strategy will allow for
both easier and quicker intervention in time of crisis as the stated goal of the operation is to protect
women and children, a goal which is likely to have support over a broad segment of the political
spectrum. The WCPC strategy will also enable long term rebuilding of unruly areas into civilized
countries if a minimum critical mass is reached.
Bibliography
Fukuyama, F. (2004). State Building.
Sørlander, K.(2008). Forsvar av rationaliteten.
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