Failed States Index

Foreign Policy Magazine has released its 2009 Failed States Index. The Index takes into account a dozen different potential vulnerabilities a country faces from demographics to economics, security to human rights. While the rankings are obviously partially subjective, the methodology is very well done.

The top ten failed states remain almost unchanged from last year with only a few states swapping places with each other. The top five are all African states with Somalia (thank you pirates, parallel governments, and Islamic militants!), once again claiming the top spot. Note also, this is not an index about which states are potentially the most dangerous to global stability (as such North Korea is 17 and Iran is 38, rather than both being in the top five). Nevertheless, it is worth noting that Pakistan's failures (it's ranked 10th), in the areas measured by the Index have in turn greatly helped to push the country towards the destabilization Islamabad is now trying to deal with. And, in this case, Pakistan's constant chaos politically, economically, socially, and militarily, does sincerely threaten global stability, arguably more so than any other country in the world.


http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/06/22/2009_failed_states_index_interactive_map_and_rankings