State failure

Resource Information

The work State failure represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Sydney Jones Library, University of Liverpool. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

State failure

Statement of responsibility

Andrew Taylor

Creator

• Taylor, Andrew, 1954-

Language

eng

Summary

Andrew Taylor provides an overview of the origins, evolution, and impact of state failure since the 1990s. Avoiding quickly outdated country-based case studies, he focuses on failure as a process rather than an event, putting contemporary usage in a wider historical context.

Member of

• Global issues
• Online access with purchase: Palgrave Connect (Political & International Studies Collection)

Cataloging source

UK-WkNB

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Summary expansion

During the 1990s the concept of state failure emerged as part of an attempt to explain and understand the complex, post-Cold War, new world dis-order. State failure achieved prominence, being applied to situations of institutional collapse and mass violence that appeared to herald a new level of international instability. Ungoverned territories hosted criminal networks, narco-barons, and terrorists; they would be sources of threats flowing from environmental degradation and disease. The failed state influenced profoundly international politics in early-21st century. Exploring critically the emergence, evolution and consequences of the state failure concept, Andrew Taylor concludes that despite a superficial plausibility, it lacks sufficient theoretical and empirical rigour to understand the varying phenomena gathered under the heading of state failure. This lack of intellectual depth renders it dangerous as a guide to policy