Who Failed the Worlds “Failed States”?
Canada is contending that “failed states” pose a dual threat to western nationals and to their own peopleBy Erin SimpsonA growing number of analysts are talking less about the frequency of “violent conflict,” and more about “global civil war.” They say we are so interconnected, the economic and cultural relations throughout the world are so tightly linked, and national boundaries are so insignificant that the conflicts in Sudan, the Congo, Iraq, and elsewhere are actually armed combat within the sovereign system of the globe. Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri in their books Empire and Multitudes argue that “we are entering an age… in which war arises equally from outside and inside each society.” This concept turns current foreign policy preoccupation with “failed states” on its head. Obsessed as rich countries are with stabilizing the world’s “failed and fragile states,” the idea that these same rich countries are key causes of “state failure” is not on the table. In Ottawa, debates a
