ABSTRACT
Fragile states have been a leading priority in international development thinking and practice starting in the 1990s. This concern with fragility emerged from the confluence of a variety of factors, including (i) an emphasis on human security and peacebuilding; (ii) the emergence of new states (the Balkans, the former Soviet Union, Timor-Leste, and, most recently, South Sudan), some of which have remained weak and unstable; (iii) closely linked to this, a concern with poor development performance and state effectiveness; and (iv) a belief that underdevelopment, insecurity (individual, national, and global), and conflict are related (Cammack et al., 2006). A focus on fragile states gained increased prominence in policy-making circles in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, which placed renewed emphasis on the linkages between development and governance on one hand and security on the other.
