Although in recent years the international community has focused on how to fix fragile states, none of its standard remedies – more aid, economic reform and larger peacekeeping forces – has really addressed the fundamental problems troubling these places. In this article, it is argued that fractured societies require a new approach, one that is more firmly rooted in indigenous capacities and institutions.
Fragile states are the toughest development challenge of our era. But we ignore them at our peril: about one billion people live in fragile states, including a disproportionate number of the world's extreme poor, and they account for most of today's wars. These situations require a different framework of building security, legitimacy, governance, and the economy. Only by securing development - bringing security and development together to smooth the transition from conflict to peace and then to embed stability so that development can take hold - can we put down roots deep enough to break the cycle of fragility and violence. Currently, we face critical gaps in our international capabilities to secure development. We need to better integrate military, political, legal, developmental, financial and technical tools with a variety of actors, from states to international organisations, civil society, and the private sector. Beyond assistance, we need new networked relationships between peacekeeping forces and development practitioners, and a new approach to security, to help the people in fragile states shift from being victims to principal agents of recovery. (Survival / SWP)
The fifth annual Failed States Index, produced by Foreign Policy & The Fund for Peace research organization, indicates that the world's most fragile countries are worse off than ever due to the economic crisis, numerous natural disasters, & government collapses. The world's 50 most fragile states are evaluated & ranked according to their performance in 12 indicators: demographic pressures, refugees/displaced persons, group grievance, human flight, uneven development, economic decline, delegitimization of the state, public services, human rights, security apparatus, factionalized elites, & external intervention. Somalia tops the rankings again this year, followed by Zimbabwe, Sudan, Chad, & the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Newcomers to this year's list include Guinea, Cameroon, & Yemen. Consideration is given to what went wrong & who is to blame, as well as the whiplash effect of the global financial crisis on the world's weakest states; Iran's macroeconomic mismanagement; discrepancies between thriving capital cities & pockets of instability; differences between "weak," "failing," & "collapsed" states; & the ominous potential of looming climate changes. Adapted from the source document.
