Failed States Index 2010: United States should be First

Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace has published the failed states index for 2010.  The group aims to rank nations based on what they call “12 Degrees of Failure”.  This includes among other things demographics, number of refugees, illegitimate government, brain drain and human rights.  For the record Somalia came in first with India holding on to the 79^th ranking. The magic figure for the United States was 158.

In recent years many organizations (predominantly Western) have tried to create indices to measure things that are not very easy to quantify.  The global peace index (GPI) and the global corruption index are fine examples.  In almost all cases these indexes create more questions than answers.

The Failed States Index makes certain assumptions of what a “state” should be.  It assumes that the state should have a clear boundary that is controlled by a single government.  The government should be democratically elected (preferably liberal democracy) and that the government should respect human rights as defined by Western institutions like the United Nations.

Anyone who has traveled to Asia, Africa or South America knows that this is not always the case.  Even successful nations like Brazil, China, India and Russia are not “states” like the United States, France or Britain.  Brazil and India are states only because power and decision making is much decentralized (the provinces have a lot of power and in many cases are at odds with the “central” government).  China and Russia are states only because of their authoritarian central governments (if they are not authoritative it might result in many other failed states!!).

In many parts of Asia, Africa and South America state boundaries (both internal and external) are continuously being redrawn.  Many of the existing boundaries are a direct result of European colonial rule and do not make sense to the existing populations in these areas (the Afghanistan Pakistan boarder is a classic example).

There is no question that most human beings want to live in a free society.  But that does not mean that all humans want to live in a democracy that resembles the American or Western European model.  India has a dynamic democracy but this democracy and its institutions (good or bad), does not reach every nook and corner of the country like it does in the United States or France.  Indians for the most part like it that way (the move by the Indian government to create an ID very similar to the social security number in the United States is an unpopular move).

Indices like the failed state index also give the impression (unintentionally) that all states started off at the same level.  This is obviously not true.  Somalia and many of the African and Asian nations have been in this condition for thousands of years.  Calling them failed states now is pointless.

But what about a country like the United States.  By the end of WWII the United States had become a developed power and a superpower.  In the 1990’s the United States saw the biggest economic growth in the history of the planet.  In the year 2000 the United States had a budget surplus.  But what has happened in the last 10 years?

The United States today has a total debt of approximately $13 trillion.  The debt is increasing (it increased by $1.9 trillion in 2009).  The American government and the citizens are unwilling to take the necessary steps to reduce this debt not only putting itself but the economies and future of other countries in grave danger.  In fact Americans are  comfortable borrowing from the Chinese and passing the difficult decisions to future generations.

In terms of prestige and image America is half the country it was in the year 2000.  The rise of China and India and foreign policy and financial mistakes has dramatically reduced Americas standing in the world.  The United States is unfortunately not the leader that it once was and many countries particularly the fast growing economies of Asia and South America are not concerned about American opinion as they were in the recent past.

So if you strictly compare the opportunities that the United States and Somalia had in the year 2000 and compare it to what they accomplished in the last decade then who is the bigger failure?

Related posts:

1. United States Installs another “Leader”
2. Global Peace Index: Is this a True Measure of Peace?
3. India Should Not Buy F-16s and F/A-18s from the United States
4. United States Holding Workers from India to Ransom
5. United States in an Education Arms Race with India

Tags: Afghanistan, Africa, America, Asia, Brazil, China, Corruption, democracy, Failed State, Foreign Policy, government, GPI, India, nations, Pakistan, peace, Russia, Somalia

Category: News & Government