Iraq, Afghanistan among `failing states'

Despite large-scale US support, a study shows that Iraq and Afghanistan rank among the world's most vulnerable states.





In its second annual "failed states" index, Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace concluded that Sudan is the country under the most severe stress because of violent internal conflict.

Eleven of the 20 most vulnerable countries of the 148 nations examined in the survey are in Africa. The Democratic Republic of Congo and Ivory Coast, both chronically volatile in recent years, ranked second and third.

A "failing state" was described as one in which the government lacks effective control over its territory, is not perceived as legitimate by a significant portion of its population, does not provide domestic security or basic public services to its citizens and lacks a monopoly on the use of force.

Sudan received low grades in virtually all areas surveyed, including protection of human rights, "group grievances" against the government and numbers of refugees and displaced people. The western Sudanese region of Darfur has generated well over two million displaced since 2003.

According to the review, the situation in Iraq (fourth) and Afghanistan (10th) deteriorated since last year, the first year the survey was taken.

"For Iraq, the index category that worsened most was human flight," the report says. "The exodus of Iraq's professional class has accelerated, leaving the country without the trained citizens it needs to staff important posts."

Iraq's instability was underscored in a State Department report last week that said 30 percent of all terror attacks worldwide last year occurred in Iraq.

In terms of available human resources, Afghanistan faces a somewhat different problem from Iraq. The report says while educated Afghan exiles have been slow to return since the US-led overthrow of the Taleban government in 2001, overwhelmingly poor Afghan refugees have returned in large numbers from Iran and Pakistan.

"The result is a capital city busting at the seams but short of trained administrators."

Pakistan (ninth) is another troubled country. Its inability to police the tribal areas near the Afghan border helped lead to one of the sharpest declines in overall score of any nation on the index.

The analysis debunks the notion that steady growth rates in China are making the country more stable. China lost ground last year and showed at 57th on the list.

Pauline Baker, president of the Fund for Peace, said the major factors behind China's vulnerability are inequality and corruption that led to about 87,000 peasant protests last year.

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