WHY ARE THERE SO MANY FAILED STATES NOW?
The greatest threat to global security is the rapidly increasing number of failed states.
Even though there is no agreed-upon definition of a failed state, it is generally understood that when a government can no longer provide basic security to its people due to a rise in violence or extreme poverty, or loses control over part of its territory to domestic or foreign terrorist groups, the state has failed.
A major reason to be concerned about the increasing number of failed states is that they are natural breeding grounds for local or international terrorists.
And given the increasing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, including chemical and nuclear, the more failed states, the higher the probability of the bad actors being able to develop or acquire very lethal weapons. All of this leads to an increased probability of terrorists hitting targets in Europe, the United States and elsewhere.
There’s a baker’s dozen of failed states around the world now, with more to come. Let’s look at them.