BY SARAH SILVERMAN The continuous contemporary news cycle alerts us daily to the mass violence and destruction carried out by radical and extreme violent insurgent groups, and the far reaching flow on effects. Groups such as the self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS) in the Middle East, Boko Haram in West Africa, and al-Shabab in East Africa, […]
Tag Archives: Syria
Arab Spring Turns to Winter for Much of Middle East, North Africa
- 17 June 2015
BY FELIPE UMAÑA Only a few years ago, much of the Fragile States Index analysis was following the aftermath of the Arab Spring. At the time, there was significant hope for the future, as the despotic regime of Muammar Gaddafi fell in Libya, similarly undemocratic regimes collapsed in Egypt and Tunisia, and other countries hastily […]
Most Worsened (Non-Top 10) Country for 2014: Syria
- 24 June 2014
BY KENDALL LAWRENCE Syria’s civil war continued to intensify over 2013. The Syrian Army and allied Hezbollah forces faced off over the course of the year with numerous rebel factions, all supported by different external actors. The government recaptured the town of Qusair, but lost a major stronghold in Khan al-Assal in the west of […]
Briefing: Ensuring Compliance in Syria
- 25 October 2013
BY JACOB GRUNBERGER The details of the destruction of the Syrian government’s one thousand tons of chemical agents are still being finalized by the United States, Russia, and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the implementing body of the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). In addition to the negotiations, however, another question […]
The Year of Red-Line Diplomacy
- 24 June 2013
BY PATRICIA TAFT The top several tiers of the annual Failed States Index (FSI) are often occupied not only by weak and fractured states at risk for conflict, but also states that have, over the years, been the proverbial thorns in the side of the international community. Each year these chart toppers, often impervious by […]
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 […]
North Korean WMD Trading Relationships
- 07 April 2011
BY JONAS VAICIKONIS The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), or North Korea, threatens world security by hastening the spread of nuclear weapons and related technologies to state and non-state actors interested in acquiring nuclear weapons. The North uses two pathways to acquire banned nuclear equipment for itself and for others: through state-to-state contact and […]