Fragile and failed States : Critical Perspectives on Conceptual Hybrids

Over the last decade, a number of western government agencies and international organisations have increasingly turned their attention to fragility and failure of state institutions as a major international policy challenge in the fields of security and development assistance. The concepts of “fragile” and “failed states” are now widely used in diplomatic negotiations on global security, peacekeeping operations, poverty reduction strategies, humanitarian assistance, and even international trade agreements. The notion of fragile state, in particular, has been valued by western government actors and policy analysts to label and rank a number of developing countries facing violence and conflict, political instability, severe poverty, and other threats to security and development, like Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Chad. In such countries, it is assumed that enduring political tensions, lack of security, and the inability of public administrations to provide essential services for citizens will impede self-reliant development, and thereby pose a potential threat to regional or global security.