FAILED STATES, PART I

“We are now concerned with the peace of the entire world. And the peace can only be maintained by the strong."
- George C. Marshall

INTRODUCTION
Failed states can no longer be seen as a peripheral issue in global security affairs. Because of their propensity for and susceptibility to becoming hosts to violent non-state actors and transnational crime, failed states have become much more than humanitarian and regional stability threats. From Sudan to North Korea, these failed and failing states pose real security risks for developed and developing nations alike.

OBJECTIVES

1. Analyze the root causes of state failure and the implications for mitigating these factors.
2. Analyze current examples of weak, failing, and failed states.
3. Understand the characteristics for dealing with fragile nations, examining the methods the U.S. and the international community employ to preempt and mitigate state failure/state collapse.

ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION

1. What makes a failed state? Why do some weak states slide into collapse while others endure?
2. How do the characteristics of post-Cold War intrastate conflicts affect the way the international community might intervene?
3. If (as Christopher Clapham and other suggest) state failure reflects the misplaced imposition of sovereignty on inchoate, postcolonial entities that have little concept of what being a cohesive state entails, what should be the remedy? Is there a remedy?
4. What dynamics make nations on the African continent especially vulnerable to state failure?

REQUIRED READING

Rotberg, Robert I. When States Fail: Causes and Consequences. Ed. Robert I. Rotberg. Princeton University Press, 2004. pp. 1-49. (issued book)

Krasner and Pascual, “Addressing State Failure,” Foreign Affairs, August 2005 (On Blackboard)

SUPPLEMENTAL READING

The Failed States Index and rankings, Foreign Policy Magazine.