Overview

Conventional wisdom holds that weak and failing states are the source of the world's most pressing security threats. After all, the 9/11 attacks originated in an impoverished, war-ravaged country, and transnational crime appears to flourish in weakly governed states. However, our assumptions about the threats posed by failing states are based on anecdotal arguments, not on a systematic analysis of the connections between state failure and transnational security threats. Analyzing terrorism, transnational crime, WMDs, pandemic diseases, and energy insecurity, Stewart Patrick shows that while some global threats do emerge in fragile states, most of their weaknesses create misery only for their own citizenry. Moreover, many threats originate farther up the chain, in wealthier and more stable countries like Russia and Venezuela. Weak Links will force policymakers to rethink what they assume about state failure and transnational insecurity.

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9780199751518

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For Atlanticist students and scholars ...Weak Links will make for an interesting read and, although it probably should not be the first book you read on contemporary security issues due to the explicitly US-Centric focus, it is a solid text. * eInternational Relations *

For Atlanticist students and scholars ...Weak Links will make for an interesting read and, although it probably should not be the first book you read on contemporary security issues due to the explicitly US-Centric focus, it is a solid text. eInternational Relations

<br> Understanding how and why states fail is not just an urgent task for policymakers <br>but also for anyone interested in the main trends shaping the world. Weak Links<br>is a rigorous account of a phenomenon that combines medieval-like realities with <br>modern conditions. There is no other book like this. -Mois?'s Na m, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and author of Illicit<p><br> The phenomenon known as fragile states is typically over-determined but poorly <br>specified, leading to sweeping conclusions of limited policy relevance. Stewart <br>Patrick's new book performs a critically important service by analyzing fragile <br>states in relation to specific security threats. --Chester A. Crocker, Professor of Strategic Studies, Georgetown University<p><br> Weak Links takes on the conventional wisdom that there is a close connection <br>between weak states and transnational threats like terrorism. The book demonstrates <br>that the relationship is much

Author Information

Stewart Patrick is Senior Fellow at the Council and Director of the Program on International Institutions and Global Governance at the Council on Foreign Relations.

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