Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: Politics/Current Events
Approximate word count: 25-30,000 words
Availability
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Author:
“Brennan
Kraxberger's family knew he was a politics junkie when he began watching C-SPAN
as a teenager. After leaving his hometown of Carthage, Missouri, he attended
the University of Missouri-Columbia (B.A.) and the University of Iowa (Ph.D.).
He now lives in Newport News, Virginia with his wife and two young boys.”
For more,
visit Kraxberger’s blog.
Description:
“The issue
of state failure is both overly sensationalized and under-appreciated in
popular discourse. In the West, failed states are too readily associated with
terrorist activities. Likewise, publications like the Failed States Index
greatly exaggerate the number of countries with extreme political dysfunction.
Too often, huge swathes of the developing world – notably Africa – are
perceived as failed. Even so, collapse of effective governance in a minority of
states is a pressing problem in Africa, parts of Asia, and elsewhere. In
another kind of misperception, policy makers and citizens alike often wrongly
assume that fixes for state failure are necessarily expensive.
This short
book seeks to re-energize policy discussions and improve public understanding
of the world’s most troubled places. When governments do not or cannot provide
basic public goods and services such as physical security, courts, and
infrastructure, the effects extend well beyond threats of piracy or terrorism
emanating from states like Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Failed states,
or even critically weak states, can export various types of misery and threats
to their neighbors and beyond. Dismal economic performance, refugees and
displaced persons, illicit smuggling, and health challenges are some of the key
negative impacts.
Drawing on
a longer historical view of statehood, this work provides a synthesis of recent
calls to revamp the global community’s approach to fragile states. The book
recognizes the fact that some countries gaining formal independence in the last
century have never had much state building success. And it questions the wisdom
of only utilizing status quo methods for (re-) constructing functioning states.
The book argues for the re-evaluation of statehood, the United Nations
sovereignty framework, and the overwhelming bias toward preserving existing
territories. Readers will be delighted to see that novel responses to state
decay could be less costly than the status quo.”
Appraisal:
In the
blog’s submission guidelines, I say that non-fiction is acceptable if it is of
general interest and targeted at a layperson. Failed States clearly meets the second of these. I suspect I’m
going well beyond giving it the benefit of the doubt on the first one. But
maybe that shouldn’t be, as what happens on the other side of the world may not
be as unrelated to our lives as we think.
A “failed
state” is a country where the government has ceased to exist or become so
dysfunctional as to be ineffective in actually governing all or a significant
part of the country. The obvious and most extreme current example is Somalia.
The author discusses the issues that lead to state failure, historical methods
for dealing with this, and possible improvements to these methods. He also
talks about state failure and its relationship to terrorism.
Although Failed State has obvious appeal to the
hardcore political junkie, especially those who are interested in their
country’s foreign policy, as well as to those interested in humanitarian
efforts, as the world becomes more and more connected, anyone who likes to
think they’re well informed should be familiar with this issue. At less than
30,000 words, Failed States is an
excellent and quick introduction for that person.
Format/Typo Issues:
No
significant issues.
Rating: **** Four stars
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