Somalia no 6 on the failed state index. Kenya still a failed state...

[General Duke]

Kenya still a 'failed state', claims report

Story by NATION Correspondent, NEW YORK

Publication Date: 5/4/2006

The Failed States Index Rankings

 

Somalia in at no 6

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Kenya rose nine places, moving from the "critical'' zone to the "danger'' zone, in the 2006 "Failed States Index'' published yesterday in a US foreign policy journal.

 

Kenya was ranked last year as the world's 25th most vulnerable country in terms of likelihood of succumbing to violent internal conflict. It is now placed in the 34th position, having registered improvements in most of the 12 criteria used to measure state stability.

 

Enhanced effectiveness of government appears to be the key reason for Kenya's rise in the ratings, a report accompanying the index suggests.

 

"Kenya managed to improve despite corruption scandals and a porous border with Somalia," says the assessment carried out by Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace, a Washington-based think-tank. "Ultimately, it is clear that leadership, not location, matters most," it said.

 

Sudan is rated as the country most likely to suffer collapse. Five other African states – Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Zimbabwe, Chad and Somalia – are listed among the 10 least stable countries.

 

Uganda, in 21st place, is judged to be at a higher risk of failure than Kenya. But Tanzania, ranked 71st, is viewed as the most stable East African country.

 

The United States is ranked 128th in the index of 146 countries. Norway is considered the world's most stable country.

 

Source: Daily Nation, May 4, 2006

[RedSea]

Pakistan is a failed state? who came up with a such list.Somalia as we are all aware is failed state, but some of the other countries that are on there are not what they made to be, such as Pakistan, Yemen, North Korea etc.

[rudy-Diiriye]

so whos the judge here! probably some westerners correct? so usa, uk & the rest of so called 1st world are better! tell me something i dont know!! this is getting old!! :confused: :confused:

 

my list dont say that!! i dont think that when u have more ppl in jail than graduates from unis can be called a successful nation period!

[BoiBoi]

rudy,

 

This report is not a direct reflection on the people of those countries.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failed_state

 

Failed state is a controversial term intended to mean a weak state in which the central government has little practical control over much of its territory.

 

A state could be said to "succeed" if it maintains a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force within its borders. When this is broken (e.g., through the dominant presence of warlords, militias, or terrorism), the very existence of the state becomes dubious, and the state becomes a failed state. The difficulty of determining whether a government maintains "a monopoly on the legitimate use of force" (which includes the problems of the definition of "legitimate") means it is not clear precisely when a state can be said to have "failed".

 

The controversy derives from the political and military implications of labelling a state as "failed". The proclamations and laws of its government may be ignored, and in some cases violent action may be undertaken inside the borders of the "failed state" by agents from other countries; such action naturally has highly dubious legality.

 

In recent years various political commentators have labelled many countries as failed states, including Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia, Yemen, Colombia, and the Solomon Islands.

 

The term is also used in the sense of a state that has been rendered ineffective (i.e., has nominal military/police control over its territory only in the sense of having no armed opposition groups directly challenging state authority; in short, the "no news is good news" approach) and is not able to enforce its laws uniformly because of high crime rates, extreme Political corruption, an extensive informal market, impenetrable bureaucracy, judicial ineffectiveness, military interference in politics, cultural situations in which traditional leaders wield more power than the state over a certain area but do not compete with the state, or a number of other factors. West African countries including Cameroon, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone are often mentioned in this category, as well as Albania in Europe.

 

The Crisis States Research Centre defines a “failed state†as a condition of “state collapse†– e.g. a state that can no longer perform its basic security, and development functions and that has no effective control over its territory and borders. A failed state is one that can no longer reproduce the conditions for its own existence. This term is used in very contradictory ways in the policy community (for instance, there is a tendency to label a “poorly performing†state as “failed†– a tendency the Crisis States Research Centre rejects). The opposite of a “failed state†is an “enduring state†and the absolute dividing line between these two conditions is difficult to ascertain at the margins. Even in a failed state, some elements of the state, such as local state organisations, might continue to exist.

 

The US magazine Foreign Policy runs an yearly index called the 'Failed States Index' where it tries to rank nations based on 12 determining factors like mounting:

 

1) demographic pressures;

2) massive movement of refugees and internally displaced peoples;

3) legacy of vengeance-seeking group grievance;

4) chronic and sustained human flight;

5) uneven economic development along group lines;

6) sharp and/or severe economic decline;

7) criminalisation and delegitimisation of the state;

8) progressive deterioration of public services;

9) widespread violation of human rights;

10)security apparatus as ‘state within a state’;

11)rise of factionalised elites;

12)intervention of other states or external actors. [1]