Fixing Fragile States: A New Paradigm for Development (Praeger Security International)


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Fragile states are a menace. Their lawless environments spread instability across borders, provide havens for terrorists, threaten access to natural resources, and consign millions of people to poverty. But Western attempts to reform these benighted places have rarely made things better. Kaplan argues that to avoid revisiting the carnage and catastrophes seen in places like Iraq, Bosnia, and the Congo, the West needs to rethink its ideas on fragile states and start helping their peoples build governments and states that actually fit the local landscape. Fixing Fragile StateS≪/i> lays bare the fatal flaws in current policies and explains why the only way to give these places a chance at peace and prosperity is to rethink how development really works. Flawed governance systems, not corrupt bureaucrats or armed militias, are the cancers that devour weak states. The cure, therefore, is not to send more aid or more peacekeepers but to redesign political, economic, and legal structures-to refashion them so they can leverage local traditions, overcome political fragmentation, expand governance capacities, and catalyze corporate investment.
After dissecting the reasons why some states prosper and others sink into poverty and violence, Fixing Fragile StateS≪/i> visits seven deeply dysfunctional places � including Pakistan, Bolivia, West Africa, and Syria� and explains how even the most desperate of them can be transformed.
</p>Fixing Fragile States: A New Paradigm for Development (Praeger Security International) Review
This well written book offers an innovative perspective on theworld's most troubling places. It is a must buy for anyone interested
in economic development, the war on terrorism, and the biggest
challenges in foreign policy today.
By analyzing why some countries succeed and others struggle with
poverty and violence, he proposes a new paradigm for nation building,
one anchored in social cohesion and local capacities. In doing so, he
critiques the approach typically adopted by policymakers, NGOs, and
academics.
In contrast to most other analysts, the author starts by examining a
country's sociocultural dynamics and then combines these with an
in-depth look at economic, business, and political conditions. He
argues -- successfully in my opinion -- that development must be
rooted in internal dynamics, in which a society works together to
advance itself. Too many internationally-driven efforts to help
failed and fragile states depend on external resources and direction,
and actually often end up undermining local communities' ability to
progress.
The book summarizes the history of successful states, both in the
rich world and in places like India, China, Turkey, Botswana, and
Chile, that come from less developed regions, but which have managed
to steadily grow. It then dissects the causes behind weak states'
problems, focusing on the interaction between feeble governments and
fractured societies. It ends up with a "framework" of ten broad
policy recommendations.
The book then shows in seven case studies -- on Pakistan, the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria, Somaliland, Azerbaijan,
Bolivia, and West Africa -- how these ideas can be implemented. It
offers an excellent introduction to each of these places, and why
they have struggled so miserably. Each of these chapters have their
own policy recommendations, customizations of the broader ideas set
out earlier. Readers will learn a lot about the world just be looking
at these.
The many maps and diagrams, and the well edited style makes this book
very readable. I cannot think of a better way to understand some of
the world's most pressing problems than by buying this book.
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