Fragile and Failing States: Challenges and Responses(Sandhurst Trends in International Conflict)

Since the early 1990s, the challenges posed by fragile and failing states have been a contentious and enduring part of the debates on post-Cold War international security. Though extensive, these debates have so far yielded little agreement on either the essential nature of state fragility and failure and what, if anything, potential outside intervenors can and should do to prevent it from developing, restore state functionality, or at least mitigate its impact and consequences. In this book, an international team of authors examine both the conceptual and practical challenges posed by this phenomenon. They consider the essential nature of the problem and through a variety of case studies, examine the effectiveness or otherwise of various regional and wider international responses in Africa, the Middle East and South America. This book will be of interest to both academics and practitioners engaged in studying and responding to the ongoing challenges posed by the existence of fragile and failing states in the contemporary international system.  

About the Author :
David Brown is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Defence and International Affairs at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He has written extensively on a range of security related issues, publishing books and articles on US and UK foreign and defence policy, contemporary power relations, aspects of European security and international intervention. His new research project is on understanding the development of Coalition foreign and defence policy in the UK. Donette Murray is a Senior Lecturer at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. She holds a doctorate from the University of Ulster and an LLM in International Law from the University of Maastricht. Donette is the author of four books on US foreign policy, including US Foreign Policy and Iran: America-Iranian relations since the Islamic Revolution and Principles and Pragmatism: the evolving foreign policy of George W Bush 2001-2008 with David Brown and Martin A. Smith, and the co-editor of two volumes on Power in the twenty-first century. A former political advisor, she has also taught at Ulster University and the Queen’s University of Belfast. Malte Riemann is a senior lecturer in the Department of Defence and International Affairs at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Dr Riemann studied in Bremen and Pietermaritzburg, and holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Reading. His research has been funded by the German Academic Exchange Service, the Earhart Foundation and the European International Studies Association. His fields of interest include the privatisation of war and its effects on the state’s legitimate monopoly on violence, the medicalization of security, and the historicity of non-state actors. He is currently in the process of writing a monograph in German on the transformation of war provisionally titled ‘War in the 20th and 21st Century’ and his most recent publication ‘Problematizing the medicalization of violence: A critical discourse analysis of the ‘Cure Violence’ initiative’ has just appeared in Critical Public Health. Norma Rossi is a senior lecturer in Defence and International Affairs at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Dr Rossi studied in Rome and Paris and received her Ph.D. in Politics and International Relations from the University of Reading on an Earhart Foundation fellowship. In her current project she explores how violent non-state actors challenge state sovereignty with a specific focus on the Italian state and the Sicilian mafia. Her research shows how the Sicilian mafia and the Italian state have historically built their identities through opposing spatial, temporal and social narratives, which enable contesting claims to political authority. She has also written on the rise of far-right parties in Europe, specifically exploring how the politics of anxiety fuel distinctive dynamics between mainstream parties and the far right. Recently, she has extended her research interests to include Security Sector Reform and the role of education in conflict-affected environments. Martin A. Smith is Senior Lecturer in Defence and International Affairs at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Prior to joining RMAS he was at the Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford, from where he received his Ph.D. in 1994. His main research interests are in the fields of international power, European security and US foreign policy. He is the author, co-author or editor of twelve books including most recently: The Foreign Policies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush: A Comparative Perspective, George W. Bush’s Foreign Policies: Principles and Pragmatism with David Brown & Donette Murray, Power in the Changing Global Order and NATO’s Post-Cold War Trajectory: Decline or Regeneration? with Mark Webber & James Sperling. His academic articles have appeared inter alia, in International Affairs, European Security, West European Politics, The Journal of Strategic Studies and Contemporary Security Policy. He is currently Guest Editing, with David Brown, a forthcoming special issue of Comparative Strategy.

Review :
This, the second book in our Sandhurst Trends series, makes a timely contribution not only to the ongoing academic and practitioner debates on state fragility and its consequences for the world, but also to advancing our core objective of securing the Academic Faculty at RMAS as an internationally-recognised centre of excellence. In this book an international team of scholars and practitioners offer a diverse and challenging range of analyses on one of the most fundamental security and development issues of our time. I am especially proud that this initiative was successfully launched during my time as Commander RMAS and am looking forward to following its continued progress in years to come. Brigadier WSC Wright OBE Commander Sandhurst Group 2016-2019