Failed States

States of Change

Which countries gained and declined the most in this year's Failed States Index?

BY J.J. MESSNER | JUNE 20, 2011

The Undeveloping World

The Eurozone's weakest have taken a hit in the latest Failed States Index.

BY NATE HAKEN, ALESSANDRA WASSERSTROM | JUNE 20, 2011

Dark Crystal

Why didn't anyone predict the Arab revolutions?

BY BLAKE HOUNSHELL | JULY/AUGUST 2011

The Brutal Truth

Failed states are mainly a threat to their own inhabitants. We should help them anyway.

BY STEWART PATRICK | JULY/AUGUST 2011

12 Degrees of Failure

How does a weak state become a failed state?

JULY/AUGUST 2010

Reality Check: How Bad Are They?

Worlds apart in language, culture, and daily routine, the top failed states still share a quality of life that is at best difficult and at worst fatal for the majority of the population.

JULY/AUGUST 2010

Money Can Buy Love

China isn't just investing in minerals, oil, and other raw goods -- it's buying diplomatic favors and loyalty, too. Chinese investment by region, 2005-2009, in billions of dollars:

JULY/AUGUST 2010

Actually, It's Mountains

Sometimes the toughest obstacles are the naturally occurring ones.

BY ROBERT D. KAPLAN | JULY/AUGUST 2010

Who Else Is to Blame?

From security short falls to lack of government accountibility, Mo Ibrahim, Paul Wolfowitz, Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, Bruce Babbitt, and Raymond C. Offenheiser explain those contributing factors that cripple societies and inevitably keep failed states failing.

JULY/AUGUST 2010

La Vie en %$!

Why is France still propping up Africa's dictators?

BY BOUBACAR BORIS DIOP | JULY/AUGUST 2010

Where Autocrats Don't Fear to Tread

Why dictators love the United Nations.

BY JEFFREY HERBST | JULY/AUGUST 2010

Beijing's Coalition of the Willing

For the West, failed states are a problem. For China, they're an opportunity.

BY STEFAN HALPER | JULY/AUGUST 2010

Mr. Lonely

The twilight of Chad's paranoid tyrant.

BY OPHEERA MCDOOM | JULY/AUGUST 2010

Africa's North Korea

Inside Eritrea's open-air prison.

BY NATHANIEL MYERS | JULY/AUGUST 2010

A Literal Disaster

Things are just what they seem in the Central African Republic.

BY GRAEME WOOD | JULY/AUGUST 2010

The Worst of the Worst

Bad dude dictators and general coconut heads.

BY GEORGE B.N. AYITTEY | JULY/AUGUST 2010

Why Bad Guys Matter

They put the failed in failed states.

BY PAUL COLLIER | JULY/AUGUST 2010

Watch List

Four countries in big trouble.

BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | JULY/AUGUST 2010

Mogadishu Was a Blast

Our trip to the world’s most failed state -- by way of Kandahar.

BY ALEX STRICK VAN LINSCHOTEN, FELIX KUEHN | JULY/AUGUST 2010

In the Beginning, There Was Somalia

Two decades later, the U.S. still has no plan.

BY JAMES TRAUB | JULY/AUGUST 2010

Why I Keep Going Back to Somalia

What the world's most dangerous place looks like behind the screen of bullets.

BY JEFFREY GETTLEMAN | MARCH 18, 2009

There Is No Congo

Why the only way to help Congo is to stop pretending it exists.

BY JEFFREY HERBST, GREG MILLS | MARCH 18, 2009