BY KRISTA HENDRY Tackling state fragility — once it has been identified by tools such as the Failed States Index (FSI) — is by no means a simple or straightforward task. Nor is it a one-dimensional task that can be undertaken alone. Building a state and society that protects human security requires a multifaceted strategy […]
Category Archives: People
No State is an Island: The Importance of a Multisectoral Approach
- 24 June 2013
BY KRISTA HENDRY In the 2013 Failed States Index (FSI), we call attention to the linkages between the underlying causes of state fragility. Essentially, no state is an island, and pressures in one state, no matter how seemingly isolated, often lead to wider destabilization. The pressures that can underlay and lead to conflict are normally […]
The Recovery of Somalia: Check Back With Us Again Next Year
- 24 June 2013
BY FELIPE UMANA Somalia has been what many would describe as the quintessential “failed state” since the inception of the Failed States Index (FSI). Struggling with an occasionally unforgiving semi-arid topography in much of the North, widespread poverty as a result of tight competition for few resources, and mired by high levels of insecurity, an […]
Most Improved Country for 2013: Japan
- 24 June 2013
BY SEBASTIAN PAVLOU Japan continues to recover with relative speed from the triple crisis of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant meltdown that devastated the country on March 11, 2011. After the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami tore through the country’s north-eastern coastal communities of Miyagi, Iwatu and Fukushima, at least 20,851 people died or […]
The Dark Side of State Building: South Sudan
- 24 June 2013
BY NATE HAKEN AND PATRICIA TAFT For sustainable human security, statebuilding is the only endgame. Absent the state, traditional mechanisms and authority structures might indeed manage communal issues, perhaps even better than would the state. Trans-communal issues like environmental degradation, complex humanitarian emergencies, and large scale conflict, however, go beyond the jurisdiction and capacity of […]
Anatomy of a Storm: Regional Impacts of the Arab Spring
- 24 June 2013
BY NATE HAKEN Does state failure matter? Obviously it matters mostly for the population of that country, but even for its neighbors, the answer is a resounding yes. Chaos in a single country can often impact an entire region. In 2011, as measured in the 2012 FSI, Tunisia and the wider “Arab Spring” were the […]
Failed States Index 2013: What Were You Expecting?
- 24 June 2013
BY J.J. MESSNER In compiling the 2013 Failed States Index (FSI), there was some optimism at The Fund for Peace that we would finally see Somalia climb out of first place on the Index after having been firmly anchored in top position for five straight years, especially given the encouraging signs that have been emanating […]
Liberia: Mitigating Conflict through Responsible Resource Distribution and Management
- 14 June 2013
BY KRISTA HENDRY AND GEORGE WAH WILLIAMS Over the past decade, the Liberian economy has rebounded from fourteen years of civil war. Its GDP has had measurable growth since 2004 and the African Development Bank predicts a growth rate of over 7% in 2013. This is in part due to financial and technical aid from […]
State of Emergency in Nigeria: Balancing Hard Security with Peacebuilding
- 29 May 2013
BY NATE HAKEN AND BENJAMIN KAUFMAN On 15 May 2013, President Goodluck Jonathan imposed a state of emergency in three states in northeastern Nigeria. In a televised statement, he called for “extraordinary measures to restore normalcy” in Borno, Yobe and Adawama states, where the domestic non-state armed group(s) Jama’atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda’Awati Wal Jihad (JAS), commonly […]
National Reconciliation in Grand Gedeh
- 08 March 2013
BY PATRICIA TAFT AND GEORGE WAH WILLIAMS On a clear day in the middle of the dry season, it can take up to fifteen hours to travel less than 475 kilometers (350 miles) from Liberia’s capital city of Monrovia to Zwedru, the capital of Grand Gedeh County. Grand Gedeh lies in the southeast corner of […]