The process of reconciling a fractured and fragmented society after any conflict—or better yet before a conflict can erupt—is tortuously complicated. It can take almost Herculean resolve to confront a past in which one or more sectors of a society have suffered at the hands of another, and then move that society forward. Sometimes, it may require military force to make that happen. And so, when the U.S. Government finds itself helping rebuild the social structure of a failed state, a “quasi-state,” or some ungoverned space, it should consider using the military as a “forcing function” to bring aggrieved populations together.1
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