Discordant Development – Progress That Increases Instability
Samuel Huntington argued in his 1968 classic Political Order in Changing Societies that rapid development could be highly destabilizing: Social and economic change—urbanization, increase in literacy...
View ArticleSocial Covenants: The Missing Ingredient in State Building Efforts
Political theorists have for the most part focused on the state when thinking about how to make countries work better for their populations. This has naturally led to a concern with state-society...
View ArticleWhat the OECD Does Not Understand About Fragile States
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and its International Network on Conflict and Fragility (INCAF) do an admirable job bringing...
View ArticleWhat the World Bank Does Not Understand About “Doing Business”
In its 10-year history, the World Bank’s Doing Business Report has achieved enormous influence. The annual study, one of the flagship knowledge products of the World Bank, is the leading tool to judge...
View ArticleIraq — Exclusionary State Building Naturally Leads to Violence
By Harith Hasan al-Qarawee One important lesson we learned from post-Saddam Iraq is that violence is still an important political tool and it is not only used by the state, but also by groups competing...
View ArticleSeven Scenarios for the Future of Syria
As the war in Syria drags on, it is becoming ever more vicious. Militias kill hundreds of civilians, ethnic cleansing large swaths of the country in the process. Rebel groups fight among themselves for...
View ArticleState Fragility and Social Cohesion: What is the State of Knowledge?
The Governance and Social Development Resource Centre (GSDRC) in the UK recently compiled an assessment of the relationship between social cohesion and state fragility in response to a query put forth...
View ArticleAnnouncing New Book on Poverty and Development in Fragile States
I am pleased to announce the publication of my new book on fragile states — Betrayed: Politics, Power and Prosperity (Palgrave Macmillan). The book focuses on the biggest challenges in the development...
View ArticleEgypt Needs to Develop a Social Covenant to Overcome Fault Lines – Seth...
Originally published in Al Jazeera. On June 8, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi formally assumed his position as head of state. While many will understandably focus on whether the former general can bring...
View ArticleLibya Spillover: Mapping Northern Africa’s Growing Chaos
Rival militias are fighting for control of parts of Tripoli and a renegade general is battling Islamist militias in the eastern city of Benghazi. Libya is slipping further and further into chaos....
View ArticleWhy LDCs Need Different Strategies From Medium Developed Countries
One of the biggest mistakes the development community makes is to confuse the needs of less-developed countries (LDCs) with that of medium-developed countries (MDCs). The former—not fully consolidated,...
View ArticleReligion, Religious Leaders, and Violence in the Conflict in Syria – Armenak...
For centuries, religion has been an undetachable part of the political life in the Middle East. After the Arab spring, the situation in the region and especially Syria and Iraq raises the question...
View ArticleIdentifying Truly Fragile States
International observers have great difficulty identifying genuinely fragile states. Too often they either confuse stability with resilience or episodes of crisis with igniters of conflict. The primary...
View ArticleYemen : Understanding the Houthi Convulsion — by Philip Barrett Holzapfel
The contrast between Yemen’s negotiated transition process aimed at transforming the country into a modern civil state and the reality on the ground could hardly be any starker: As the country’s...
View ArticleWhat the OECD Still Does Not Understand About Fragile States
Two years ago I wrote an article outlining what the OECD does not understand about fragile states. The release of States of Fragility 2015, the organization’s flagship publication on fragile states,...
View ArticleThe Political Instrumentalization of Islam in the Middle East — By Hakim Khatib
Practicing politics within religious frameworks is more likely to increase states’ fragility. While employing religious references in political discourses could foster positive outcomes such as...
View Article10 Questions to Understand Fragile States
It is important to ask pointed and thoughtful questions if you want to better understand the dynamics driving fragile states and how you can better respond to them. I generally ask open-ended questions...
View ArticleLeadership in Fragile States : The Need to Put Inclusiveness First
Policymakers have long struggled with how to address the myriad challenges that plague fragile states. Some argue that building institutions is key. Others argue that other things matter more, such as...
View ArticleModeling Fragility: A Societal and Institutional Approach
The OCED is trying to build a model to better analyze fragility. This is admirable, but also risky. Past attempts to model fragility—such as the Fragile States Index (FSI)—have done more harm than good...
View ArticleProtest, Emancipation and Turmoil in South Africa: The Age of Discontent
The protests at different South African Universities have continued in 2016. The emergence of these protests should be analyzed in the context of a nation that gave freedom and full citizenry (at least...
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