Fragile States

CGD research on fragile states examines how rich countries and other development actors can best assist fragile states and their citizens; related work focuses on understanding the transition from immediate post-conflict assistance to longer-term development assistance.

Program goals include

• understanding the causes and consequences of state fragility;

• determining opportunities for policy intervention and the sequencing of such interventions;

• finding ways to improve the effectiveness of aid to fragile states; and,

• identifying turning points that signal when donors should shift from post-conflict to longer-term development assistance.

CGD senior fellow Vijaya Ramachandran leads this research to help inform and influence policymakers and practitioners working on post-conflict reconstruction and development in difficult environments.

Together with CGD visiting fellow Satish Chand, professor of economics at the University of New South Wales, Ramachandran has commissioned a series of papers by currently or recently active aid practitioners in post-conflict assistance programs. Drawing upon these papers, Ramachandran and Chand plan to develop practical guidelines to help policymakers and practitioners examine and respond to on-the-ground challenges. Areas of interest include an analysis of donor relationships with the military, the sequencing and coordination of donor activity in post-conflict settings, the value of the European Union’s Stability Instrument, the revival of basic public services in post-conflict countries, and the incentives of government actors in various post-conflict settings.

Previous CGD work on weak and fragile states includes the following working papers, books and reports:

• Civil War: A Review of Fifty Years of Research, a working paper by Christopher Blattman, a non-resident fellow and former CGD post-doctoral fellow currently at Yale University, and Edward Miguel of the University of California at Berkeley. The paper investigates how civil wars begin, how the actors are organized, and what economic effects civil wars have on their societies.

• Africa’s Private Sector: What’s Wrong with the Business Environment and What to do About It, by Ramachandran with Alan Gelb and Manju Kedia Shah. The book uses enterprise survey data from over 5,000 businesses to explore the roadblocks to private-sector growth in African countries emerging from many years of conflict, including Angola, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

• The Pentagon and Global Development: Making Sense of the DoD's Expanding Role ,
  a working paper by Stewart Patrick and Kaysie Brown, former CGD researchers now based at the Council on Foreign Relations. The paper looks at the growing involvement of the Department of Defense (DoD) in providing U.S. foreign aid.

• Short of the Goal: U.S. Policy and Poorly Performing States, an edited volume outlining strategies for aid to countries consistently at risk of failure.

• On the Brink: Weak States and U.S. National Security. This report was prepared by a high level, bipartisan commission of academics, former government officials, and business leaders who sought to draw attention to the dangers that fragile states pose for the United States and offered practical suggestions for ways to respond.