State Collapse

State collapse represents a rare and an extreme level on a continuum of state decay, when a weak state becomes unable and/or unwilling to fulfill its task as the provider of public goods. Although there is no consensus on a precise definition of the term, still there are several traits that collapsed states share. The first is the disappearance of state authority as grantor of security and welfare of its citizens. The second is the appearance of subnational leaders, mainly in the form of strong warlords, who control several hundred armed militias that rob, rape, and pillage to finance their war efforts. Third, the national identity is replaced with subnational identities, including those of ethnic group, religion, and race. Finally, the territorial integrity of the collapsed state becomes compromised when all other state and nonstate actors, especially neighboring states, intervene. This entry analyzes the causes and consequences of state collapse and the possible remedies for avoiding it.

The phenomenon of state collapse is a recent addition to the political science parlance that came with the end of the Cold War in the 1990s. In this [Page 2500]period, the number of internal wars around the globe began to rise, with deadly consequences in places like Rwanda and Bosnia. Many of these conflicts have been described as “ethnic conflicts”; nonetheless, ethnicity is only one aspect of political violence. While violent conflicts must be considered as a failure of the state to perform some of its fundamental tasks, one must also pay attention to the formation of the state, especially in most of the developing world such as Africa. The foundation of these states is colonialism, which made use of clan-based divide-and-conquer tactics in addition to their military superiority. Furthermore, state formation in places such as Africa did not begin on a contractual basis; rather, predatory powers conquered the land, created state institutions, and imposed taxes and forced labor intended only to facilitate the extraction of wealth, mainly in the form of raw materials, in these territories.

The postcolonial state in areas like Africa began with divided societies and economies that rely heavily on rent from the sale of commodities. Since the 1960s, however, many economies in the region have witnessed a decline in their livelihood as a result of unstable political regimes and diminished commodity prices that shattered the ability to adequately provide public services. Many of these states went through an initial phase of ethnic group federation as a substitute for the lack of essential services to all their citizens. Often, a just system of redistribution within and among groups is the key to creating solidarity among citizens, and its breakdown often triggers deadly political violence. Thus, in most of the conflict-ridden countries, nepotism and favoritism were practiced rather than a fair and just redistribution system.

With the end of the Cold War, two reforms, heavily promoted by the West, further undermined the already weak states in many parts of the developing world. The first one involved structural adjustment programs grounded in neoclassical economics, which promoted privatization, discouraged subsidies, and devalued currencies and which were complemented by the reduction of the amount of aid; together, these measures led to heightened inflation and reduced many government services. The second is the imposition of political reform based on the idealization of representative democracy, which had been promoted as the only ingredient for stability and development. However, as has been proven, a sudden democratic transition in the midst of economic devastation facilitated the widespread internal wars and cases of subsequent state failure and collapse of the 1990s. During this period, state after state in Eastern Europe and Africa experienced deadly internal wars that claimed (and still claim in places like Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo) many lives, created thousands of refugees and internally displaced populations, and eventually redrew the map of Eastern Europe. Moreover, with the absence of superpower involvement, states began to intervene in neighboring conflicts, which led to the widespread availability of arms and mercenaries, especially child soldiers.

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