BY J.J. MESSNER DE LATOUR AND FIONA GRATHWOHL Brexit. In many ways, it would be easy to sum up the fortunes of the United Kingdom over the last five years with this one widely known portmanteau that has not only been the catchphrase for Britain’s exit from the European Union, but has also become a […]
Category Archives: Fragile States Index Analysis
Regional Instability Drives Worsening in Burkina Faso
- Sunday, 10 May 2020 17:36
BY MARCEL MAGLO AND FIONA GRATHWOHL Burkina Faso, formerly considered one of West Africa’s most stable countries, now rates as the fourth most worsened country in the 2020 Fragile States Index (FSI). The country has seen mounting threats to its peace and security over the past five years, despite government efforts to manage the pressures. […]
Colombia’s Peace Deal Unravels
- Sunday, 10 May 2020 17:34
BY NATALIE FIERTZ Colombia saw its worst year-on-year change in the history of the Fragile States Index (FSI) in 2020, breaking a trend of almost uninterrupted improvement since the Index’s inauguration. The 2016 peace deal between Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Colombian government is looking increasingly fragile, with faith in the process […]
What Else Could Go Wrong? Mozambique Continues Worsening Trend
- Sunday, 10 May 2020 17:32
BY NATALIE FIERTZ A combination of natural disasters, insurgent attacks, and a contested election resulted in another challenging year for Mozambique, which tied with Libya for the second-most worsened country on the 2020 Fragile States Index (FSI). Already beset by increasing structural pressures across multiple indicators, Mozambique’s steady worsening over the past several years in […]
Division in India
- Sunday, 10 May 2020 17:29
BY NATALIE FIERTZ In 1989, foreshadowing events to come, India’s current ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) issued the Palampur Resolution, throwing their support behind the construction of a temple devoted to the Hindu deity Rama on the site of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya. This was a remarkable gamble at the time, as […]
Libya Continues Path as the Decade’s Most Worsened Country
- Sunday, 10 May 2020 17:27
BY PATRICIA TAFT Libya’s long-running conflict and instability has been well documented by the Fragile States Index (FSI), wherein it rates as the most-worsened country in the world for the past decade, and also holds the record for the greatest year-on-year worsening, when it worsened by 25.8 points in the 2012 FSI. In the 2020 […]
From One Crisis to the Next in Lebanon
- Sunday, 10 May 2020 17:27
BY WENDY WILSON Once the scene of a deadly civil war, Lebanon has more recently been hailed for its resilience, having endured the region’s geopolitical upheaval, staved off the revolutionary tide of the 2011 Arab Spring, and seemingly absorbed the spill over effects of the Syrian Civil War. This celebrated resilience – based on the […]
Uzbekistan: The Quiet Achiever
- Sunday, 10 May 2020 17:20
KEENAN IULIANO When countries worsen significantly on the Fragile States Index (FSI), the deterioration can sometimes be rapid and dramatic and is nearly always headline news. However, significant improvement tends to be more steady, gradual, long-term, and can often go unnoticed. Uzbekistan is one such country that has made significant but quiet improvement; its overall […]
In the Wake of Al-Bashir, Women of Sudan Bring a Glimmer of Hope
- Sunday, 10 May 2020 14:51
BY PATRICIA TAFT AND WENDY WILSON In April 2019, a photograph of a woman dressed in white, standing atop a car and rallying a large group of protestors went viral. The woman, a student named Alaa Salah, had had enough. And by the size and passion of those chanting with her, so had many others. […]
Fifteen Years On, Cote d’Ivoire Comes Back from the Brink
- Sunday, 10 May 2020 13:27
BY MARCEL MAGLO AND FIONA GRATHWOHL In the very first Failed States Index (FSI) in 2005, Côte d’Ivoire was ranked as the world’s most fragile state. Sixteen years later, the country once ravaged by two civil conflicts bears little resemblance to its past when it was torn along political and ethnic lines as Laurent Gbagbo […]