Visits seven deeply dysfunctional places-including Pakistan, Bolivia, West Africa, and Syria-and explains how even the most desperate of them can be transformed.
Fragile states are a menace. Their lawless environments spread instability across borders, provide havens for terrorists, threaten access to natural resources, and consign millions of people to poverty. But Western attempts to reform these benighted places have rarely made things better. Kaplan argues that to avoid revisiting the carnage and catastrophes seen in places like Iraq, Bosnia, and the Congo, the West needs to rethink its ideas on fragile states and start helping their peoples build governments and states that actually fit the local landscape. Fixing Fragile States lays bare the fatal flaws in current policies and explains why the only way to give these places a chance at peace and prosperity is to rethink how development really works. Flawed governance systems, not corrupt bureaucrats or armed militias, are the cancers that devour weak states. The cure, therefore, is not to send more aid or more peacekeepers but to redesign political, economic, and legal structures-to refashion them so they can leverage local traditions, overcome political fragmentation, expand governance capacities, and catalyze corporate investment.
After dissecting the reasons why some states prosper and others sink into poverty and violence, Fixing Fragile States visits seven deeply dysfunctional places—including Pakistan, Bolivia, West Africa, and Syria—and explains how even the most desperate of them can be transformed.
List of Tables, Charts, and Maps
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part I Introduction
1. Introduction: Why Fragile States Matter
Part II Diagnosis
2. Fostering Development: The Missing Ingredients
3. Fragile States, Fractured Societies
Part III Prescriptions
4. A New Paradigm for Development
Part IV Application
5. West Africa: Stitching a Fragmented Region Together
6. The Democratic Republic of the Congo: Constructing the State Bottom Up
7. Syria: Countering Sectarianism with Unifying Institutions
8. Somaliland: Reconnecting State and Society
9. Bolivia: Building Representative Institutions in a Divided Country
10. Pakistan: Redirecting a Countrys Trajectory
11. Azerbaijan: Pressing Reform on an Autocracy
Index
Reviews
"This is a stimulating contribution to a growing literature on how to deal with fragile states."—Foreign Affairs
Endorsements
"A timely and provocative volume, Fixing Fragile States offers a seldom-voiced perspective on why international efforts to repair broken countries tend to fail. Seth Kaplan argues that instead of dispatching troops or sending more aid, policymakers should focus on what these desperate and dangerous places really need: long-term help in building strong institutions to foster social cohesion, responsive and accountable government, and locally-driven economic dynamism. Kaplan's focus deals with one of the great challenges of our time, and his analysis deserves a wide hearing."—Dr. Chester A. Crocker, Professor of Strategic Studies, Georgetown University, former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs
"A widely ranging and deeply penetrating analysis of why states fail and what to do about it. The book is full of new ideas that locate the job of state-building--usually misnamed nation-building--in the local institutions of society. It will enrich our flagging debate about failing states by focusing us, not only on good ideas, but also on their specific application (or lack of it) in seven cases of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. An insightful view by a man who knows his business."—Dr. I. William Zartman, Jacob Blaustein Distinguished Professor of International Organization and Conflict Resolution, School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University
"Fixing Fragile States presents a bold and innovative approach to development, one that emphasizes the need to customize governing bodies to suit local customs and the capacity of local institutions. For we Africans, tired of being told to emulate Western models of governance, this book is a breath of fresh air. With its explanation of how countries can use their own strengths to build stable and prosperous societies, Fixing Fragile States should be required reading, not only for government officials and development specialists, but for everyone concerned with the fate of weak and failed states."—Edna Adan Ismail, ex-Foreign Minister, Somaliland
