ABSTRACT
Introduction In recent years, state fragility has vaulted up the list of foreign-policy concerns as the United States and other developed countries respond to threats posed by well-organized extremist groups operating in weakly governed states. As Robert Rotberg wrote in Foreign Affairs following the September 11 terrorist attacks, “the threat of terrorism has given the problem of failed nation-states an immediacy and importance that transcends its previous humanitarian dimension” (Rotberg 2002: 127).
