keeping their former colonies from disintegrating into failed states.
Um, "not disintegrating into a failed state" is a pretty clear prerequisite to any sort of sustained social/economic development (what you apparently mean by 'nation building'). This may be somewhat sobering for a few advocates of pure anarcho-capitalism, but is not really a surprise to anyone else.
any sort of sustained social/economic development (what you apparently mean by 'nation building')
Nope.
Try again.
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