Classification of Failed States

Jessica Nott

GVPT200—Blog 2—Failed States

26 October 2014

            States are considered to be weak or failing when the internal government loses control over them. That is an extremely broad definition that relates to all different aspects of controlling a country. This can refer to control of property, economy, military forces and the actual government itself. The dangers of these countries are how little people feel that the laws apply to them. They become breeding grounds for terrorist cells and extremist activist groups. Although their economy is failing and trade is questionable, the real danger lies in the lack of control over the land and the people. When this happens, like how it has been happening for years in the Middle East and Africa, the failed states become a serious threat to people’s lives all over the world.

            Failure of state can be describes many ways. It can be seen in genocide and lack of human rights or with lack of civil rights. It can develop because of different groups fighting to take power over the government or because of a civil war between the people of the country. It can also happen due to bad neighbors or interstate wars where insurgent groups can come in and rattle the stability of the government and take over. All of these are possible factors that lead to the breeding grounds for terrorist known as failed states. In all of these cases the government has little to no control over the land and the people.

            In places like Somalia, Iraq and Syria extremist groups have grown exponentially, causing further instability in the area. More recently, a group known as the “Islamic State”, a kind of spin off of even more extreme extremists from Al-Qaida has taken over a lot of land in the previously mentioned area. They are dangerous with no regard for human rights, and have outwardly taken responsibility for genocides, ethnic cleansings, and beheadings of American and British nationals as a threat to the United States.

            The United States involvement in the issue comes when the actions of the groups in the unstable areas directly effects the people and values of America. In the United States National Security Strategy from May of 2010, the president outs emphasis on the fact that the United States is not fighting a religion or terrorism as an idea, but the United States is fighting a group of out of control immoral people that have no care for people that are not like themselves. Since then, the problem has been exacerbated even though the United States has taken down a lot of the major players in Al-Qaida headquarters, which has led to a slow downfall of that particular group.

            The issue is, even when the United States takes out parts of major groups, like Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaida, failed states like Syria and Iraq give these groups and new groups safe havens to rebuild themselves again. The lawless and ungoverned lands are breeding grounds for terrorist activist and radical groups to plan their actions and train their people. How relatively easy (key word being relatively because it is by far not easy, but it also is not easy for the United States to always track them down) it is for a terrorist group to meet up, plan and contact each other is what should be one of the top concerns when debating which state is a failing or weak state. Although many factors play into what is classified as a weak or failing state, the loss of control of the government and the land within the state to radical groups should be a top priority.