Addressing State Failure
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Addressing State Failure
Stephen D. Krasner and Carlos Pascual
THE DANGER OF FAILED STATES
IN TODAY'S increasingly interconnected world, weak and failed states
pose an acute risk to U.S. and global security. Indeed, they present one
of the most important foreign policy challenges of the contemporary
era. States are most vulnerable to collapse in the time immediately
before, during, and after conflict. When chaos prevails, terrorism,
narcotics trade, weapons proliferation, and other forms of organized
crime can flourish. Left in dire straits, subject to depredation, and
denied access to basic services, people become susceptible to the
exhortations of demagogues and hatemongers. It was in such circum-
stances that in 2001 one of the poorest countries in the world,
Afghanistan, became the base for the deadliest attack ever on the U.S.
homeland, graphically and tragically illustrating that the problems of
other countries often do not affect them alone.
The international community is not, however, adequately organized
to deal with governance failures. The United States and the rest of the
world need to develop the tools to both prevent conflict and manage
its aftermath when it does occur. Such efforts will entail not just
peacekeeping measures, but also influencing the choices that troubled
countries make about their economies, their political systems, the rule
of law, and their internal security. Weak countries are unable to take
advantage of the global economy not just because of a lack of resources,
ST E P H E N D. K RA S N E R is Director of the Policy Planning Staff at the
U.S. Department of State. CARLOS PASCUAL is the State Department's
Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization. He previously served
as U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine and Senior Director for Russia and
Eurasia at the National Security Council.
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Addressing State Failure
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