The only two I can think of, as examples to counterpoint your conclusion, are Germany and Japan after WWII. However, there a foreign administration ran the government while a foreign occupation army ran security for almost a decade after the war. Both countries still house massive US military bases.

Iraq provides an example of why it is necessary to do both. Clearly, it was politically infeasible to keep an occupation administration in, but being the military lacky of a corrupt government doesn’t work particularly well.

The only example from Africa is that of Liberia where the largest UN mission in history has become the entire economy of that tiny nation. They have only just – after around five years of occupation – had their first elections and the country is still under UN rule. Perhaps this will work?

The author is a white South African who, after years of struggle, has finally been compelled to abandon his homeland as Mandela’s dreams fall further and further into ruin. A remarkable post, and a sad one – how can a struggling nation survive when …

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I wonder if it’s universal that repressive regimes that hold a substantial part of their population in abject ignorance, misery, and poverty, will always, in the end, produce a backlash, and that this backlash will amost always put those same ignorant, miserable, angry, and poor people into roles they are not able to assume competently.