Abstract

GUTIERREZ SANIN, Francisco. Failed States or Failed Concepts?: Classifying State Failures and Their Problems. rev.estud.soc. [online]. 2010, n.37, pp.87-104. ISSN 0123-885X.

The problem of "State Failiures" is currently one of the main challenges faced by the international policy led by the United States. In general, First World countries consider that crisis and state failure are the primary source of terrorism, violence, internal conflict, and civil war and promote migration waves, destabilize neighboring nations, and have the tendency of disturbing economic relations. The need to neutralize this foreseen risk has led some high global impact agencies to develop indicators for identifying, evaluating, and monitoring weak states, thereby constructing a base of information which aids the international community in their decision making, and allowing for the analysis and conceptualization of the subject in specialized literature. The objective of this article is to propose a critical evaluation of said indicators, use them as a window through which relevant literature can be observed, and discuss how Colombia's situation can be interpreted from there.

Keywords : Failed states; international policy; state performance.

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