Today between forty and sixty nations, home to close to two billion people, have either collapsed or are teetering on the brink of failure. The world's worst problems--terrorism, drugs and human trafficking, absolute poverty, ethnic conflict, disease, genocide--originate in such states, and the
international community has devoted billions of dollars to solving the problem. Yet by and large the effort has not succeeded.
Ashraf Ghani and Clare Lockhart have taken an active part in the effort to save failed states for many years, serving as World Bank officials, as advisers to
the UN, and as high-level participants in the new government of Afghanistan. Now, in Fixing Failed States, they describe the issue--vividly and convincingly--offering an on-the-ground picture of why past efforts have not worked and advancing a groundbreaking new solution to this most pressing of
global crises. Military force, while certainly necessary on occasion, cannot solve the fundamental problems, and humanitarian interventions cost billions yet do not leave capable states in their wake. Ghani and Lockhart argue that only an integrated state-building approach can heal these failing
countries. As they explain, many of these countries already have the resources they need, if only we knew how to connect them to global knowledge and put them to work in the right way. Their state-building strategy, which assigns responsibility equally among the international community, national
leaders, and citizens, maps out a clear path to political and economic stability. The authors provide a clear, practical framework for achieving these ends, supporting their case with first-hand examples of struggling territories such as Afghanistan, Sudan, Kosovo and Nepal as well as the world's
success stories--Singapore, Ireland, and even the American South.
The battle against terror, poverty, climate change, and much more cannot be won unless we can save these nations. In Fixing Fixed States, two of the world's foremost authorities offer a way out of the current crisis--a
framework for re-imagining the international system. It is a book that is unique in its essential optimism--an optimism that the authors have earned through their own substantial real-world efforts in failed states.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One: Defining the Context
1. The Creeping "Sovereignty Gap"
2. Reversing History
3. Webs and Flows of Cooperation
4. Failed Politics
5. The Promises and Perils of Aid
Part Two: Defining the State for the
Twenty-First Century
6. Toward a Multifunctional View of the State
7. The Framework: The Ten Functions of the State
Part Three: A New Agenda for State Building
8. International Compacts: Sovereignty Strategies
9. National Programs: The Challenge of
Implementation
Conclusion: Collective Power
Notes
Index
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Ashraf Ghani played a central role in the design and implementation of the post-Taliban settlement in Afghanistan, serving as UN adviser to the Bonn process and as Finance Minister during Afghanistan's Transitional Administration. He has worked at the World Bank and taught at Johns Hopkins and
Berkeley universities. He has been nominated for the job of Secretary General of the United Nations and considered for the job of President of the World Bank. He chairs the Institute for State Effectiveness. Clare Lockhart is Director for the Institute for State Effectiveness. She has worked for the
World Bank, the United Nations and advised the Government of Afghanistan government in Kabul on its strategy and programs from 2002 to 2005. She advises countries and international organizations on state-building and has written widely on the topic. www.effectivestates.org
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