Author Archives: Natalie Fiertz

In Spring 2022, the Biden Administration released the Global Fragility Act’s (GFA) long-awaited four priority countries, Haiti, Libya, Mozambique, and Papua New Guinea, and one region, Coastal West Africa.¹ The release of these priority areas is a welcomed and critical step forward to implementing the bipartisan GFA signed into law in December 2019. The GFA is a game-changing law that puts peacebuilding and conflict prevention at the center of U.S. foreign policy, assistance, and security strategy.² As recommended by AfP from the start, the Fragile States Index (FSI) was critical in this selection process with over seventeen years of evidence-based quantifiable data. The FSI will also be essential in monitoring the success and failure of the GFA strategies and, more importantly, understanding the causes of conflict and areas to target.