nation-building

nation-building (uncountable)

1. (political science) Unifying the people or peoples within a state so that it remains politically stable and viable in the long run.
   • 1977, Reinhard Bendix, Nation-building and Citizenship: Studies of Our Changing Social Order, Univ of California Press, →ISBN, page 357:

     Although uniquely favored by relatively viable political institutions, India yet shares this uncertainty with a large number of countries for which independence is but a first step on the road to nation-building.

   • 2019 October 12, Brent Staples, quoting Danielle Battisti, “How Italians Became ‘White’”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     The mythologizing, carried out over many decades, granted Italian-Americans “a formative role in the nation-building narrative.”

• nation-builder