"Fragile States: ‘Toughest Development Challenge of Our Era’"

Map source: Center for Security Studies

"One billion people live in countries where the state is breaking down or is overcome by conflict. The countries are often poor or with large pockets of poverty. Their governments are typically unable or unwilling to provide basic services or enough security for people’s lives to improve. These fragile states are the “toughest development challenge of our era,” Bank President Robert B. Zoellick observed recently at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Geneva. “The diseases, outflows of desperate people, criminality, and terrorism that can spawn in the vacuum of fragile states can quickly become global threats,” Zoellick said." More!