Category Archives: Charles Fiertz

Nigeria COVID Briefing: A Stress Test of Nigerian Resilience

By Charles Fiertz, Nate Haken, Patricia Taft Nasri, Chloe Pan, Nkasi Wodu So far, Nigeria has managed the health aspects of the COVID-19 crisis much better than many countries, certainly better than the United States, based on the number of reported cases and deaths, due to a strong and proactive approach to the prevention of […]

Read more ...

Fragile States Index 2020

BY FUND FOR PEACE The Fragile States Index, produced by The Fund for Peace, is a critical tool in highlighting not only the normal pressures that all states experience, but also in identifying when those pressures are pushing a state towards the brink of failure. By highlighting pertinent issues in weak and failing states, The […]

Read more ...

A Pot Boiling Over: Chile Most Worsened in 2020

BY CHARLES FIERTZ On October 7, in the Santiago metro, a group of students began jumping turnstiles to protest a four percent rise in peak-time fares announced the day before. This was the second increase in fares for public transportation, which were already more than twice as expensive as those in neighboring Buenos Aires or […]

Read more ...

Colombia’s Peace Deal Unravels

BY CHARLES FIERTZ Colombia saw its worst year-on-year change in the history of the Fragile States Index (FSI) in 2020, breaking a trend of almost uninterrupted improvement since the Index’s inauguration. The 2016 peace deal between Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Colombian government is looking increasingly fragile, with faith in the process […]

Read more ...

What Else Could Go Wrong? Mozambique Continues Worsening Trend

BY CHARLES FIERTZ A combination of natural disasters, insurgent attacks, and a contested election resulted in another challenging year for Mozambique, which tied with Libya for the second-most worsened country on the 2020 Fragile States Index (FSI). Already beset by increasing structural pressures across multiple indicators, Mozambique’s steady worsening over the past several years in […]

Read more ...

Division in India

BY CHARLES FIERTZ In 1989, foreshadowing events to come, India’s current ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) issued the Palampur Resolution, throwing their support behind the construction of a temple devoted to the Hindu deity Rama on the site of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya. This was a remarkable gamble at the time, as […]

Read more ...

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, […]

Read more ...

Fragile States Index 2019

BY FUND FOR PEACE The Fragile States Index, produced by The Fund for Peace, is a critical tool in highlighting not only the normal pressures that all states experience, but also in identifying when those pressures are pushing a state towards the brink of failure. By highlighting pertinent issues in weak and failing states, The […]

Read more ...

The Sad Song of Venezuela

BY CHARLES FIERTZ When the famed Chilean author, Isabel Allende, had to leave her native country in the wake of the military coup against leftist president Salvador Allende in 1973, she and her family fled to the safety and stability of Venezuela, then a beacon among the tumult of Latin America. In a recent interview, […]

Read more ...

Brazil’s Slide Continues and Takes a Lurch to the Right

BY CHARLES FIERTZ As Brazil continues its 5-year slide of worsening on the Fragile States Index (FSI), this year marks the country’s sharpest year-on-year decline yet, seeing it tie for most-worsened country. Dashing tentative hopes for reversal and recovery that had emerged at the end of 2017, 2018 saw the collapse of the first shoots […]

Read more ...