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"Failed States."

Frödin, Olle LU (2016) Blackwell Reference Online. 30 November 2016.
Abstract
The concept of failed state denotes countries where institutions underpinning the legal and political order have fallen apart, meaning that government organizations do not have the capacity to enforce laws, guarantee rights, and provide core public goods, such as security and basic infrastructure. The concept gained prominence as a national security and international development narrative in the 1990s, and was subsequently widely used in government and academic discourse in the 2000s. Both the concept itself and the interventions associated with it are contested. National security analysts held that the failed state agenda was an overconfident and misguided foreign policy rationale that seriously underestimated the difficulties of state... (More)
The concept of failed state denotes countries where institutions underpinning the legal and political order have fallen apart, meaning that government organizations do not have the capacity to enforce laws, guarantee rights, and provide core public goods, such as security and basic infrastructure. The concept gained prominence as a national security and international development narrative in the 1990s, and was subsequently widely used in government and academic discourse in the 2000s. Both the concept itself and the interventions associated with it are contested. National security analysts held that the failed state agenda was an overconfident and misguided foreign policy rationale that seriously underestimated the difficulties of state building operations. In academic circles, the concept has been criticized for being vaguely defined in that a clear and coherent set of indicators for what constitutes failed states is lacking. As a result, different kinds of states, such as Afghanistan, North Korea, Haiti, Iraq and Colombia, have been lumped together into an undifferentiated mass under one label. In the wake of such criticism, scholars have recently developed more nuanced and refined categories to discriminate between kinds and degrees of state failure.
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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
host publication
The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology
volume
Blackwell Reference Online. 30 November 2016
language
Swedish
LU publication?
yes
id
fdd58cd4-5e9f-44b3-a252-b4b3fad063a4
alternative location
http://www.sociologyencyclopedia.com/subscriber/uid=768/tocnode.html?id=g9781405124331_yr2016_chunk_g978140512433112_ss1-375
date added to LUP
2016-12-01 10:40:11
date last changed
2021-03-22 18:49:47
@inbook{fdd58cd4-5e9f-44b3-a252-b4b3fad063a4,
  abstract     = {{The concept of failed state denotes countries where institutions underpinning the legal and political order have fallen apart, meaning that government organizations do not have the capacity to enforce laws, guarantee rights, and provide core public goods, such as security and basic infrastructure. The concept gained prominence as a national security and international development narrative in the 1990s, and was subsequently widely used in government and academic discourse in the 2000s. Both the concept itself and the interventions associated with it are contested. National security analysts held that the failed state agenda was an overconfident and misguided foreign policy rationale that seriously underestimated the difficulties of state building operations. In academic circles, the concept has been criticized for being vaguely defined in that a clear and coherent set of indicators for what constitutes failed states is lacking. As a result, different kinds of states, such as Afghanistan, North Korea, Haiti, Iraq and Colombia, have been lumped together into an undifferentiated mass under one label. In the wake of such criticism, scholars have recently developed more nuanced and refined categories to discriminate between kinds and degrees of state failure.<br/>}},
  author       = {{Frödin, Olle}},
  booktitle    = {{The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  month        = {{11}},
  title        = {{"Failed States."}},
  url          = {{http://www.sociologyencyclopedia.com/subscriber/uid=768/tocnode.html?id=g9781405124331_yr2016_chunk_g978140512433112_ss1-375}},
  volume       = {{Blackwell Reference Online. 30 November 2016}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}