BY EMILY SAMPLE Tajikistan is the smallest and poorest country in the central Asian region and is almost completely enveloped within the Pamir mountain range. In 2020, Tajikistan’s indicator rankings held mostly steady across the board. Despite this seeming lack of change, these scores reflect a resilience to the potential downward spiral that was possible […]
Category Archives: Fragile States Index 2021
Young and Resilient: Timor-Leste in the Time of COVID-19
- Thursday, 20 May 2021 18:47
BY NATALIE FIERTZ When the Global Health Security Index was released in late October 2019, barely more than a month before COVID-19 infected its first person, Timor-Leste was ranked 166th out of 195 countries. Poor – the country has a GDP per capita of just over $1500, the lowest in East Asia – and with […]
Towards Inclusive Employment for Peace
- Thursday, 20 May 2021 18:42
BY ELIZABETH KARIUKI – INTERNATIONAL ALERT International Alert is a peacebuilding charity that has worked for 30 years to lay the foundations for lasting peace in communities affected by violent conflict.
Searching for Hope in Lebanon’s Compounding Crises
- Thursday, 20 May 2021 18:12
BY RUTH SIMPSON – INTERNATIONAL ALERT International Alert is a peacebuilding charity that has worked for 30 years to lay the foundations for lasting peace in communities affected by violent conflict. Since the nationwide protest movement that swept the country in October 2019, Lebanon – the country and its people – has been experiencing intersecting […]
Turning Up the Heat: Climate Change, Fragility, and Conflict
- Thursday, 20 May 2021 17:59
BY JESSICA HARTOG – INTERNATIONAL ALERT International Alert is a peacebuilding charity that has worked for 30 years to lay the foundations for lasting peace in communities affected by violent conflict. The conflict and fragility landscape is getting increasingly complex as the influence of non-state actors, technology and renewed geopolitical competition has accelerated. In 2020 […]
“This is the Last Thing We Could Afford”
- Thursday, 20 May 2021 17:49
BY DANIEL WOODBURN AND NATOSHA HODUSKI The shock of the August 2020 Beirut port explosion tearing through the city is indelibly marked in the minds of Lebanese citizens. It resulted in 200 fatalities, 6000 injured, over 300,000 people made homeless, and caused an estimated $15 billion USD in property damages. As shocking as the events […]
A Thawing Conflict Brings a Reversal of Fortune in Armenia
- Thursday, 20 May 2021 17:35
BY PATRICIA TAFT NASRI In the 2021 Fragile States Index, among the countries that experienced the greatest increases in fragility, issues of group-based identity and historical grievances combined to give rise to instability. This was certainly true in the United States, where years of partisan politics have turned former political adversaries into political enemies, and […]
The Shattering of Abiymania
- Thursday, 20 May 2021 17:31
BY NATALIE FIERTZ In 2020, Ethiopia’s latent fragilities exploded in a complex array of conflicts along pre-existing fault lines across the country. The previous year had seen the lowest level of reported fatalities in five years1 and in October Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, capping the widespread praise – known […]
Rising Authoritarianism in El Salvador: What Happens After the Crisis
- Thursday, 20 May 2021 17:20
BY KATHLEEN SMITH Even as COVID-19 struck, the very popular new El Salvadorian president, Nayib Bukele, was taking a hardline approach to dealing with a raging gang violence problem, and it seemed to be working. In 2018, the intentional homicide rate was the worst in the world at 52 per 100,000 people.1 By the end […]
COVID and Political Extremism in Spain and Germany: Two Different Paths
- Thursday, 20 May 2021 17:14
BY DANIELLE BATTERMAN As the Syria refugee crisis escalated in 2015, an incipient movement of right-wing nationalism gained traction across Europe, including Germany. Spain, however, appeared relatively immune, until 2017 and the turmoil surrounding Catalonia’s push for autonomy. Then, with the onset of the pandemic, far right groups in both countries sought to capitalize, Vox […]