Enforcing the Peace : Learning from the Imperial Past

Kimberly Zisk Marten argues that the West's attempts to remake foreign societies in its own image - even with the best of intentions - invariably fail.

She focuses on recent operations in Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor, Afghanistan, and Iraq, comparing these cases to the colonial activities of Great Britain, France, and the United States at the turn of the twentieth century.

Marten argues that rather than trying to control political developments abroad, a more sensible goal of foreign intervention is the restoration of basic security to unstable regions threatened by anarchy.