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Projects: Reinvigorating Failed States |
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New Book on State Failure The book comprises fourteen essays by leading scholars and practitioners who help structure this disparate field of research, provide useful empirical descriptions, and offer policy recommendations. Robert Rotberg's substantial opening chapter sets out a theory and taxonomy of state failure. It is followed by two sets of chapters, the first on the nature and correlates of failure, the second on methods of preventing state failure and reconstructing those states that do fail. Economic jump-starting, legal refurbishing, elections, the demobilizing of ex-combatants, and civil society are among the many topics discussed. All of the essays are previously unpublished. In addition to Rotberg, the contributors include David Carment, Christopher Clapham, Nat J. Colletta, Jeffrey Herbst, Nelson Kasfir, Michael T. Klare, Markus Kostner, Terrence Lyons, Jens Meierhenrich, Daniel N. Posner, Susan Rose-Ackerman, Donald R. Snodgrass, Nicolas van de Walle, Jennifer A. Widner, and Ingo Wiederhofer. The last decades of the twentieth century have experienced wholesale examples of state weakness, especially in Africa. Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Somalia -- to cite but three of many cases where states have ceased for at least a time to function as states -- are examples of failing or failed states. Others in Central Asia and Southeast Asia are vulnerable. This project searches for effective guidelines on how best to restore states that have ceased to function well, and on how to prevent states (like the Democratic Republic of the Congo) from cascading into failure. Revitalizing states is much more difficult than preventing them from sliding toward decay and collapse. It is important to establish indicators of decay, and of rates of decay. It is also important to determine the relative importance of such indicators: Which two or three (or seven) weaknesses generate the likelihood of collapse, and on what time scale? Likewise, to reverse the process of decay, which are the most critical, secondary, and tertiary factors? Security? Restoring the rule of law? Resuscitating the macroeconomy? Reestablishing local government? Other political institutions? Empowering civil society? Sustaining international commitments? Who restores? What helps resuscitate? What are the most important international and regional actors? Who manages the process? What role should which parts of the UN play? What can and should global and regional powers do to help prevent state collapse? What international policy changes should be proposed? If globalism and the macroeconomic realities of the twenty-first century are conducive to state vulnerability, what should be done for the weaker states? Those are among the key questions for this project. This project involves scholars and practitioners from the United States, Europe, Africa, and elsewhere. The WPF has commissioned studies on a variety of themes, and plans to publish a series of reports and a book. The intent is to provide both practical and conceptual understanding to practitioners and scholars, and also to advance the field of conflict prevention and conflict avoidance by reaching testable propositions about vulnerable states. The first meetings of this project took place June 1-4, 2000 and January 19-21, 2001 at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. The final meeting was held June 29 to July 2, 2001. The project resulted in two volumes. When States Fail: Causes and Consequences (Princeton, 2004) examines the theories behind state failure, while State Failure and State Weakness in a Time of Terror (Washington, DC, 2003) discusses individual state cases. Further
Publications on State Failure
“The New Nature of Nation-State
Failure,” The Washington Quarterly, XXV
(2002) “Failed States in a World of
Terror,” Foreign Affairs,
LXXXI (2002)
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