I should write a longer critique of the Failed State Index, now renamed as Fragile State index published annually along with Foreign Policys Photo Essay - Postcards From Hell Photos of life and death in the worlds 50 worst places. The term failed states came to prominence in the contemporary policy discourse with the publication of Gerald Helman and Steven Ratner‘s article, Saving Failed States, who defined the failed state as, a situation where governmental structures are overwhelmed by circumstances. The term failed states is a flawed and an imprecise analytical category. This list includes everything from Haiti to Iraq, and is frustratingly imprecise, despite the farce of empirical data used to curate this list. This concept of the Failed States constructs and sustains the rationale for imposing US interests, both new neo-liberal and neo-colonial, on less powerful nations. The Index also proposes a paradigm to create conversation, save failed state or assists these disintegrating states. These proposals offer another mode of legitimizing intervention in these countries. The accompany Photo Essay (appalling that Editors get away with okaying titles like this), similarly re-affirms orientalist stereotypes of these distant, lawless places. Various representations of post-colonial states arose in creating a narrative around Third World during the cold-war annexation of the social sciences. The Failed State index is an extension of such practices as evidenced by more contemporary representations of post-colonial states commonly revolving around elements of deficiency or failure, eg quasi-states, weak states, failed states or rogue states.
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 17:03:59 +0000
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