Why Have “Failed States” Failed to Disappear?

Eberhard Kienle (1)

1 CERI - Centre de recherches internationales (Sciences Po, CNRS)

Though much critiqued and criticised, the generally ill-defined notion of the “failed state” continues to dot and enthral academic and even more so public debates. Over the years, it has become a habit to diagnose an increasing number of internationally recognised states marked by serious internal conflicts and flagging delivery of public goods as “failing”, “failed”, or “collapsed”. More often than not, the label serves to legitimate external intervention, including projects of reconstruction and “state re-building” to contain or combat domestic disorder supposed to threaten the rest of the world, be it in the form of migration or terrorism (Woodward 2017). In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) area alone, the dubious honour of this title has been repeatedly awarded to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Sudan, and Libya.

Keywords: Middle East; failed states

Domains: Political science

Eberhard Kienle. Why Have “Failed States” Failed to Disappear?. Les Dossiers du CERI, 2021, Revisiting the State, Again, pp.en ligne. ⟨hal-03431559⟩