2008 Failed States Index

Source: Foreign Policy / Fund for Peace

Whether it is an unexpected food crisis or a devastating hurricane, the world’s weakest states are the most exposed when crisis strikes. In the fourth annual Failed States Index, FOREIGN POLICY and The Fund for Peace rank the countries where state collapse may be just one disaster away.

Further details on the methodology of the Foreign Policy/Fund for Peace Failed States Index, as well as the results of earlier Failed States Indexes, can be found at ForeignPolicy.com and on the Web site of the Fund for Peace, fundforpeace.org.

In Fixing Failed States: A Framework for Rebuilding a Fractured World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), Ashraf Ghani and Clare Lockhart attempt to map out practical solutions to problems such as aid waste and lack of accountability in the world’s most vulnerable states. William Easterly offers a scathing indictment of aid efforts in weak states in The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (New York: Penguin Press, 2006). The foundation of African entrepreneur and philanthropist Mo Ibrahim recently released the inaugural Ibrahim Index of African Governance, which rates the quality of governance on the continent and aims to hold leaders to account.