By Joseph Siegle, Africa Center for Strategic Studies, July 2011
In a just published article, “Stabilizing Fragile States,” in the journal Global Dialogue, ACSS Research Director, Joseph Siegle, reviews the challenges and priorities of integrating the political, security, and developmental objectives of stabilization efforts.
Africa is home to 23 of 28 of the world’s most fragile states, according to the State Fragility Index. While long recognized as centers of instability, these states also provide fertile soil to emerging opportunistic transnational threats such as narcotics trafficking, organized crime, piracy, and terrorist networks. Since the underlying challenges these states pose seem intractable, the tendency for regional and international actors is often to adopt “strategies of containment,” merely targeting the symptoms and illicit actors that thrive in these contexts. However, this does not address the underlying source of instability. Rather than imploding, these threats tend to metastasize – as seen with al-Shabaab and piracy in Somalia or narcotraffickers in Guinea-Bissau. Strategically investing in stabilizing fragile states has far greater payoffs for regional and international security. While the task is difficult, the success of previous efforts is often underappreciated, with many hard-earned and pertinent lessons learned. This article reviews some of the key insights from these experiences and the integrated governance, security, and development priorities they entail.
Download the paper in [ENGLISH]:
To download the journal go to: http://www.worlddialogue.org/
