Essays

Failed state is a term often used by journalists and political commentators to describe a state perceived as having failed at some of the basic conditions and responsibilities of a sovereign government. The attributes that are often used to characterize a failed state are: loss of physical control of its territory, or of the monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force therein; erosion of legitimate authority to make collective decisions; an inability to provide reasonable public services; and an inability to interact with other states as a full member of the international community.

A failed nation is often characterized by social, political, and economic failure. A weak or ineffective central government, non provision of public services, widespread corruption and criminality, refugees and involuntary movement of populations, and sharp economic decline are among the common characteristics of a failing state. However, the declaration that a state has 'failed' is generally controversial and, when made authoritatively, may carry significant geopolitical consequences.

In the words of Max Weber. I state is said to 'succeed' if it maintains a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force within its borders. When this is broken either through the dominant presence of warlords, paramilitary groups, or terrorism, then the very existence of the state becomes dubious, and the state becomes a failed state. Given the difficulty in determining whether a government maintains 'a monopoly on the legitimate use of force' along with the problems of the definition of 'legitimate', it is not clear precisely when a state can be said to have 'failed'.

The term 'failed state' is also used in the sense of a state that has been rendered ineffective and is not able to enforce its laws uniformly because of high crime rates, extreme political corruption, an extensive informal market, impenetrable bureaucracy, judicial ineffectiveness, military interference in politics, cultural situations in which traditional leaders wield more power than the state over a certain area but do not compete with the state, or a number of other factors.

The Crisis States Research Centre defines a 'failed state' as a condition of 'state collapse' i.e. a state that can no longer perform its basic security and development functions and that has no effective control over its territory and borders. Thus, a failed state is one that can no longer reproduce the conditions for its own existence. Its opposite is an 'enduring state' and the absolute dividing line between these two conditions is difficult to ascertain at the margins. It is because even in a failed state, some elements of the state, such as local state organisations, might continue to exist.

Fund for Peace, a US think-tank and the magazine Foreign Policy have been publishing an annual index called the Failed States Index since 2005. The list only assesses sovereign states as determined by membership in the United Nations. Hence, several territories such as Taiwan, the Palestinian Territories, Northern Cyprus, Kosovo and Western Sahara are excluded until their political status and UN membership is ratified in international law. The Index uses 12 indicators—four social, two economic and six political—and ranking is based on the total scores of these indicators.

The social indicators are demographic pressures, massive movement of refugees and internally displaced peoples, legacy of vengeance- seeking group grievance, and chronic and sustained human flight. Demographic pressures include the pressures deriving from high population density relative to food supply and other life-sustaining resources considering the pressure from a population's settlement patterns and physical settings, including bonier disputes, ownership or occupancy of land, access to transportation outlets, control of religious or historical sites, and proximity to environmental hazards. Movement of refugees include forced uprooting of large communities as a result of random or targeted violence and/or repression, causing food shortages, disease, lack of clean water, land competition, and turmoil that can spiral into larger humanitarian and security problems, both within and between countries. Vengeance-seeking group grievance may be based on recent or past injustices including atrocities committed with impunity against communal groups and/or specific groups singled out by state authorities, or by dominant groups, for persecution or repression. Human flight includes both the 'brain drain' of professionals, intellectuals and political dissidents and voluntary emigration of 'the middle class'.

Among the economic indicators, uneven economic development is determined by group-based inequality, or perceived inequality, in education, jobs, and economic status. It is also measured by group-based poverty levels, infant mortality rates, and education levels. Economic decline, another indicator, is measured using per capita income, GNP, debt, child mortality rates, poverty levels, business failures, etc. Some pointers of economic decline are a sudden drop in commodity prices, trade revenue, foreign investment or debt payments; collapse or devaluation of me national currency and a growth of hidden economies, including the drug trade, smuggling, and capital flight; and failure of the state to pay salaries of government employees and armed forces or to meet other financial obligations to its citizens, such as pension payments.

The political indicators are criminalization and/or delegitimisation of the state, progressive deterioration of public services, widespread violation of human rights, security apparatus as 'state within a state', rise of factionalised elites, and intervention of other states or external factors. Criminalization of the state means presence of endemic corruption or profiteering by ruling elites and resistance to transparency, accountability and political representation. It includes any widespread loss of popular confidence in state institutions and processes. Deterioration of public services refers to disappearance of basic state functions that serve the people, including failure to protect citizens from terrorism and violence and to provide essential services, such as health, education, sanitation, and public transportation. It also includes using the state apparatus for agencies that serve the ruling elites, such as the security forces, presidential staff, central bank, diplomatic service, customs, etc.

Violation of human rights refers to authoritarian, dictatorial of military rule in which constitutional and democratic institutions and processes are suspended or manipulated. It includes outbreaks of politically inspired violence against innocent civilians; a rising number of political prisoners or dissidents who are denied due process consistent with international norms and practices; and any widespread abuse of legal, political and social rights, including those of individuals, groups or cultural institutions, e.g. harassment of the press, politicization of the judiciary, internal use of military for political ends, public repression of political opponents, and religious or cultural persecution. State within a state is an emergence of elite or praetorian guards that operate with impunity. It includes emergence of slate-sponsored or state-supported private militias that terrorize political opponents, suspected enemies or civilians seen to be sympathetic to the opposition. It may also include emergence of rival militias, guerilla forces or private armies in an armed struggle or protracted violent campaigns against state security forces.

Factionalised elites are a fragmentation of ruling elites and state institutions along group lines. It includes use of aggressive nationalistic rhetoric by ruling elites, especially destructive forms of communal irredentism or communal solidarity. External factors are engagement of military or para-military in the internal affairs of the state at risk by autside armies, states, identity groups or entities that affect the internal balance of power or resolution of the conflict. It includes intervention by donors, especially if there is a tendency towards over-dependence on foreign aid or peacekeeping missions.

These indicators are not designed to forecast when states may experience violence or collapse. Instead, they are meant to measure a .state's vulnerability to collapse or conflict. For each indicator, the ratings are placed on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being the lowest intensity (most stable) and 10 being the highest intensity (least stable). The total score is the sum of the 12 indicators and is on a scale of 0-120. All countries with Failed State Index (FSI) of 90 or more are considered to him at 'alert' or red level. Countries with FSI of 60 or more are at 'warning' or orange level, while countries with FSI of 30 or more ;il 'moderate' or yellow level and countries with FSI of less than 30 are at 'sustainable' level. In the 2010 failed states index, out of the 177 stales that were included, 37 were classified as 'alert', 92 as 'warning', 35 ;is 'moderate', and 13 as 'sustainable'. The worst 37 states were Somalia, Chad, Sudan,

Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Central African Republic, Guinea, Pakistan, Haiti, Cote d’Ivoire Kenya, Nigeria, Yemen, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Timor-Leste, North Korea, Niger, Uganda, Guinea-Bissau, Burundi, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Cameroon, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Republic of the Congo, Iran, Liberia, Lebanon, Burkina Faso, Uzbekistan, and Georgia. Sadly, many of the SAARC countries are in the list.