From Democracy Digest:

Radical Islamist extremist violence is wracking the fragile state of Burkina Faso and spreading east,…

Iraq is another arena where extremist violence threatens to undermine a fragile state…

Fragility is often defined as the breakdown in the social contract between state and society, the National Democratic Institute’s Lauren van Metre adds. In the case of violent extremism, this breakdown creates “fertile ground for extremists’ attempts to create alternative political orders,” according to a USIP Task Force report, in the face of “community alienation by an oppressive, corrupt or unresponsive government.” In the case of extreme poverty, as identified by the Commission on State Fragility, Growth and Development (the Cameron Report) the governments of fragile states “lack the legitimacy and capacity to deliver the jobs, public services, and opportunities their people need.” The UK’s Cameron report on Escaping the Fragility Trap came to a similar conclusion.

Read the full article here.