What are failed states and why do they fail? Is seizing political control of failed states a viable remedy for containing threats coming from failed states?

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What are failed states and why do they fail? Is seizing political control of failed states a viable remedy for containing threats coming from failed states?

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13simply give up on failed states, weak states, or

failing states may lead to disaster. There is ampleliterature showing the importance of international assistance in post

conflict transitions from warto peace.42

The world must do what it can to prevent death, destruction and ethnic cleansing inweak and failed states. This

includes using all the elements of national power Diplomacy,Information, Military, and Economic Power, this is sometimes

referred to as DIME.43

 Several events have occurred throughout history where strong nations watched and observedgenocide

and destruction, the United States sat idly by as a genocide occurred in Rwanda. TheUnited States did not act based upon the difficulties it

found in intervening in Somalia in 1991-1992. The United States must make an effort to engage in stabilization and reconstructionoperations

around the world. ―Learning how to succeed in these missions is one of the greatestchallenges of the century‖44

, however, the United States

cannot standby and allow states to fail,causing harm to regions and the world. Imagine a nuclear armed Pakistan suffering from acollapsed government and

terrorists seizing nuclear weapons. Failed and failing states remain animportant national security threat to peace and stability of the international

system. For all theproblems of the United States effort in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was the United States and to alesser extent NATO, that the

Arab League looked to in Libya and looks to now in Syria.45

Thisshould tell us something about the international system, for all the talk about nations

avoidinginterventions and nation building,countries expect and sometimes support ―nation building‖ in weak and failing states in the hope

of spreading ideals and protecting others.42

 Michael W. Doyle and Nicholas Sambanis, Making War and Building Peace:

United Nations Peace Operations(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006)43

  ―Information As Power‖, US Army War College,  http://www.carlisle.army.mi

l/dime/     accessed March 27, 201244

Beth Cole, (ed),Guiding Principles for Stabilization and Reconstruction, Washington D.C.: United StatesInstitute for Peace Press (2009), p. 1-3 

45

 Robert Kagan, ―Why the World Needs America‖, Discussion presented at the Brookings Institution, Washington,DC., February 24, 2012 http://www.brookings.edu/events/2012/0224_mtp_america.aspx

 

 

14BIBLIOGRAPHY―Al Shabaab‖, United States National Counter Terrorism Center,http://www.nctc.gov/

site/groups/al_shabaab.html , accessed March 27, 2012 

R. E. Brooks, ―Failed States, or the State as Failure?‖,

University of Chicago Law Review, 72(4),(2005)Call, Charles T., ―The Fallacy of the Failed State‖,Third World Quarterly,

Vol. 29 (8) 2008, pp1491-1507Cole, Beth (ed),Guiding Principles for Stabilization and Reconstruction, Washington D.C.:United States

Institute for Peace Press (2009)Coyne, Christopher J. ―Reconstructing Weak and Failed States: Foreign Intervention and

the Nirvana Fallacy‖,Foreign Policy Analysis, (2006) Vol 2. pp. 343-360Crocker, Chester A., ―Engaging Failed States‖,

Foreign Affairs, September/October 2003, pp.32-44  http://asr2.myw eb.uga.edu/Fall%202004/Readings/engaging_failing_states.pdf   accesse

d March 29,2012Doyle, Michael W. and Nicholas Sambanis, Making War and Building Peace: United NationsPeace Operations

(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006)Francois, Monika and Inder Sud, ―Promoting Stability and Development in

Fragile and FailedStates.‖, Development PolicyReview, 2006, 24 (2), P. 141-160Fraser, Derek, ―Failed States: Why They Matter

and What We Should Do About Them‖,The Journal of Conflict Studies, Vol 28 (2008),http://journals.hil.unb.ca/index.php/j

cs/article/view/11243/13412 accessed March 27,2012The Fund for Peace, ―Failed State Index 2011‖, 2011 Washington, D.C. 

Huria, Sonali ―Failing and Failed States: The Global Discourse‖, Institute of Peace and ConflictStudies, New Delhi, No. 75 July

2008,  http://www. ipcs.org/pdf_file/issue/555787518IPCS- IssueBrief- No75.pdf   ,accessed March 28, 2012 

Kagan, Robert ―Why the World

Needs America‖, Discussion presented at the BrookingsInstitution, Washington, DC., February 24, 2012http://www.broo

kings.edu/events/2012/0224_mtp_america.aspx   Newman, Edward, 2009, "Failed States and International Order: Constructing a Post-Westphalian

World" in Contemporary Security, 30 (3), p. 421-443 

Logan, Justin and Christopher Preble, ―Fixing Failed States: A

Cure Worse Than the Disease?‖, Harvard International Review, Winter 2008, pp. 62-66

 

15Marten, Kimberly Zisk,

 Enforcing The Peace: Learning from the Imperial Past,New York:Columbia University Press (2004).Nalbandov, Robert,

Foreign Interventions in Ethnic Conflicts (Global Security in A ChangingWorld), Surrey, England:Ashgate (2009), Kindle Edition

Ottaway, Marina and Stefan Mair, ―States at Risk and Failed States: Putting Security First‖,Carnegie Endowment for International

Peace (2004),http://www.irisprojects.umd.edu/ppc_ideas/FS_Assessment/Secure/towards_development_pdf/re  

lated_ottaway_mair_states_at_risk.pdf accessed March 28 , 2012Thomas Ricks,The Gamble: General David Petraues and the Military

Adventure in Iraq 2006-2008, New York: Penguin Press (2010) 

Rotberg, R.I. ―Failed 

States, Collapsed States, Weak States‖, World Peace Foundation (2005),Chapter 1, ―Failed States, Collapsed Stations, Weak  

States: Causes and Indicators‖ Tran, Mark, ―Somalia: A Failed State Where Intervention

Carries Its Own Risks‖,The Guardian,February 22, 2012,  http://www. guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/feb/22/somalia-failed- state-

intervention-risks , Accessed March 27, 2012Information As Power‖, US Army War College, http://www.carlisle.army.mil/dime/     acces

sedMarch 27, 2012 

―Where Life is Cheap and Talk is Loose‖,The Economist , March 17, 2011 accessed 3/25/201

2http://www.economist.com/node/18396240   Wyler, Liana Sun, ―Weak and Failing States: Evolving Security Threats and US Policy‖,

Congressional Research Service (2008),  http://ww w.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL34253.pdf accessed March 28,2012

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