failed states index

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To optimists, the arrest in Mexico this week of the world's most wanted drug lord, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, and Mexico’s bloody drug war generally, are proof that the Mexican government is standing up to the cartels. But pessimists look at Mexico and see a failing state on America’s border.

More than 80,000 people have been killed in Mexico’s brutal conflict, with the victims beheaded, shot, tortured and worse. Civil authorities regularly quit or join up with the warlords, and entire towns have been depopulated as government forces and warlords vie for control.


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“In ancient times, the opulent and civilized found it difficult to defend themselves against the poor and barbarous nations,” Adam Smith observed in 1776. “In modern times, the poor and barbarous find it difficult to defend themselves against the opulent and civilized.” It seems the 21st century is more ancient than modern. What else could be said of an era when failed and failing states generate far more worries for the international community than powerful states?


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In decades past, Washington looked across the oceans and worried about the threats posed by powerful states: the British Empire, the Kaiser’s Germany, Imperial Japan, Hitler’s Reich, the Soviet Union.