Category Archives: Fragile States Index 2020

Uzbekistan: The Quiet Achiever

KEENAN IULIANO When countries worsen significantly on the Fragile States Index (FSI), the deterioration can sometimes be rapid and dramatic and is nearly always headline news. However, significant improvement tends to be more steady, gradual, long-term, and can often go unnoticed. Uzbekistan is one such country that has made significant but quiet improvement; its overall […]

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In the Wake of Al-Bashir, Women of Sudan Bring a Glimmer of Hope

BY PATRICIA TAFT AND WENDY WILSON In April 2019, a photograph of a woman dressed in white, standing atop a car and rallying a large group of protestors went viral. The woman, a student named Alaa Salah, had had enough. And by the size and passion of those chanting with her, so had many others. […]

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Fifteen Years On, Cote d’Ivoire Comes Back from the Brink

BY MARCEL MAGLO AND FIONA GRATHWOHL In the very first Failed States Index (FSI) in 2005, Côte d’Ivoire was ranked as the world’s most fragile state. Sixteen years later, the country once ravaged by two civil conflicts bears little resemblance to its past when it was torn along political and ethnic lines as Laurent Gbagbo […]

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Iraq’s Improving Trajectory

BY NATE HAKEN AND SARAH COCKEY Access to safe water has always been a fundamental driver of conflict around the world. The worst drought in hundreds of years preceded the Syria crisis in 2011 and fueled unrest in Yemen. Changing rain patterns and desertification have brought farmers and herders into lethal violence, killing over ten […]

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Ten Countries to Watch for in Fragile States Index 2020

BY J.J. MESSNER AND CHARLES FIERTZ After 15 years of producing the Fragile States Index (FSI), we are frequently asked about how predictive of a tool it really is. So, to what extent can the FSI signal emerging crisis, as opposed to merely diagnosing current conditions? Though prediction is inevitably bound by probability and uncertainty, […]

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