Category Archives: Uncategorized

By Ayça Kiriş Photo by Samuele Schirò on Pixabay After 100 years of independence, the Republic of Türkiye is veering toward greater fragility. When the Justice and Development Party (AKP) took power over 20 years ago, Türkiye was emerging as a bulwark of stability in the region. It was consolidating liberal and democratic values, improving […]

BY PAULINE H. BAKER, PRESIDENT EMERITUS, FFP An editorial cartoon in the May 27, 2023, edition of The Economist depicted a race about to start with four entrants, each represented by a pretzel-like twisted figure in a state of panic.  Onlookers explained it was “a race to determine who’s the most dysfunctional…and all of the […]

BY MELINDA ELLINGTON Peru steadily improved on the Fragile States Index from 2006, with a sharp reduction in poverty,[1]  and improvements in literacy,[2] infant mortality,[3] and life expectancy.[4]  But against a backdrop of high inequality, since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 the country has veered sharply toward greater fragility, and in 2022 was among the […]

By Billy Agwanda Photo by Stijn Swinnen on Unsplash Until 2015, Burkina Faso, a landlocked West African country with a population of 22 million, remained untouched by the array of jihadist groups operating in the Sahel. Prior to 2015, it was even considered to be an ‘island of stability’. Analysts and researchers opined that with […]

BY ANDY TOMUSIAK AND RAPHAEL MILLER Muammar Gaddafi’s ousting in 2011 ushered in an era of partition and resulted in the creation of a power vacuum in Libya, with a myriad of domestic and foreign armed groups vying for control of Libya’s territory and resources. The resultant surge of internally displaced persons (IDPs), coupled with […]

BY JIBIKEOLUWA FABORODE The current situations of the countries that make up the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin (LCB) regions[1] are crucial for the stability of West Africa since they represent half of the sub-continent[2] and have been battling insecurity for years. Despite years of interventions aimed at addressing the myriad of structural issues facing […]

BY JULIETTE GALLO Rising social and economic stresses have eroded public confidence in institutions of democratic governance around the world.  In many countries, this has led to an increase in riots and protests.  In some countries, this has galvanized populist or autocratic movements.  In West and Central Africa, this has translated into a spate of […]

BY NATALIE SILVEIRA A steady decline in social and political cohesion in Brazil over the last eight years, as measured by the FSI, has created a situation of increasing precarity.  This sharp worsening coincided with a reduction in public confidence in institutions following the 2016 impeachment of former President Dilma Rousseff.  As an indication of […]