Abstract
Why is it important to get social science methodology correct? It is important because invalid social science theory may be used to formulate governmental policies which are wrong – incompetent and even harmful. A modern (and tragic) example of invalid social theory with bad policy is the case of America’s 20-year effort in ‘nation-building’ by occupying Afghanistan. In 2021, the policy ended dramatically with the rapid fall of the Afghan government and the triumph again of the Taliban. Afghanistan was a failed state, after a history of a series of invasions. In this research, we analyze the theory of nation-building, which can be verified by this historical event. The cross-disciplinary social science theory of nation-building is that it should be a two-directional process: with both up-and-down perspectives on building a nation from a state. This theory was analyzed empirically in a previous paper by the author, to explain the failure of nation-building in Lebanon. (Betz, 2020) Here we analyze use the theory of nation-building to explain a historical case of policy failure in Afghanistan. This theory of two strategic directions of nation-building, top-down and bottom-up, are validated in the histories of two different societies. Social science theory verified in two or more societal histories is likely to be generalizable to any modern society.
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