Written by Adam Gonn

Five Middle East and North African countries rank among the top ten failed states in the world, according to the Foreign Policy magazine’s Failed State Index for 2009, with Somalia ranking top as the most failed state in the world.

The criteria of what the magazine considers a failed state is based on methodology developed by the Washington based NGO Fund for Peace, Foreign Policy Managing Editor Blake Hounshell told National Public Radio (NPR). Fund for Peace goes through over 30,000 press reports looking at 12 different factors, then designates each country a score from one to ten in each category, he said.

Some of the factors involved are the number of refugees each country has, the level of its brain-drain, the inequality within the country and the level of democracy and corruption. Somalia scored 114.7 on the index and it was the only country out of the 177 surveyed the scored 10 in three categories: ‘Criminalization and/or Delegitimization of the State’, ‘Security Apparatus Operates as a “State Within a State,”’ and ‘Rise of Factionalized Elites’, according to Fund for Peace. 

“It’s not surprising at all,” Andrew Stroehlein of the International Crisis Group told The Media Line. “Somalia has been at the top—or at the bottom, you should probably say—for many years.” 

“It’s been a constant tragedy; a constant blight on the international community’s ability to deal with failed states and conflict and crisis situations. There is enough blame to go around. The serial failure since 1991 is just tragic,” he said.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991. The ensuing years have seen a chaotic system of rival clans controlling various parts of the capital and countryside without ever gaining complete control for more than a few months at a time.

Much of the recent attention Somalia has received has focused on the sharp increase in pirates from the country’s northern coast, which threatens both international shipping and vital aid to the country. There is also a growing concern that the lawlessness of the country will provide a safe haven for Al-Qa’ida to establish its bases there. 

Iraq and Afghanistan both received a ten each, in category 12: “Intervention of Other States or External Political Actors.” Category 12 is defined as military or paramilitary engagement in the internal affairs of the state at risk by outside armies, states, identity groups or entities that affect the internal balance of power or resolution of the conflict.

No other country received a ten in any other category.

The report does not specify whether or not the rating is based on the U.S. or any other foreign military having a presence within the country. 

Source: The Media Line, June 22, 2009

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