Seven Easy Steps to State-Building

"Quik-Bild" kinda rhymes with Carl Bildt

Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Sweden, has drawn upon "the international community’s interventionist wisdom" (??), so famously gained in Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, to advise the world on how to build yet another state, this time in Syria.

Here are Bildt's Seven Lessons of State Building:

Lesson 1: Establish a secure environment fast.

Lesson 2: Focus on state building first.

Lesson 3: Know what kind of state to build.

Lesson 4: Focus early on the preconditions for long-term economic growth.

Lesson 5: Nurture a benevolent regional environment.

Lesson 6: The greater the international support, the easier the process.

Lesson 7: Nation-building takes time and resources.

I especially like the one about nurturing a benevolent regional environment. In the region around Syria? Good idea! I'm sure people will get right on that.

Isn't this sort of list normally preceded by the words "Dear Santa?"