Chamblee54

Fund For Peace is about to unveil The Failed States Index 2013. FFP takes 12 indicators, mixes them up with a secret formula, and produces a list of 178 countries. The worst country, with the 001 rank, is Somalia. 178 is Finland.
A blog called Musings On Iraq brought the FSI to the attention of PG. The country between the rivers is 011 this year, despite, or because of, the heavy American investment there. MOI does not deny the problems in Iraq, but questions the way FFP keeps score. When you start looking at the twelve indicators, compare the scores over the last few years, you eyes might start to glaze over.
“The most glaring scores however were for group grievances and security apparatus that went from 9.7 to 10.0 and 9.9 to 10.0 respectively. Obviously the insurgency is taking off again, but 10.0 was the score Iraq received when it was still in a civil war in 2007. Yes, violence is up, but it’s nowhere near the level it was at during the sectarian conflict when several thousands were ending up dead each month, the government largely shut down, and daily life was completely disrupted.”
The problems in ranking Iraq highlight some of the problems with a study like this. It is tough to really know what is going on across town, much less across the world. MOI describes Iraq in 2007 as a country in collapse. This was when Fox News told America that we were winning the war.
The bottom ten is dominated by Africa. The first Asian state to appear is 007 Afghanistan, another state with an intense American investment. 008 is Haiti, 011 is Iraq, and 013 is Pakistan. The rest of the bottom 20 is African.
The top ten is dominated by Scandinavia. 173 New Zealand is the top non European nation, with 169 Australia rounding out the top ten. The other eight top tens are European, with 170 Ireland ten spots ahead of 160 Great Britain. England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are considered as one unit.
The way that 160 Great Britain was judged, as one unit, probably affected the score of that state. Another state like that is 067 Israel/West Bank. This apparently includes Gaza. The troubles in the Arab parts counterbalance the good life in the Jewish state.
We are in paragraph eight, and still have not discussed 159 United States. 168 Canada and 097 Mexico round out NAFTA land. The top Asian state is 158 Singapore, 152 Chile tops South America, and 121 Botswana is on top of continental Africa.
According to the Guardian, “The organisation that produces the index, the Fund for Peace, is the kind of outfit John le Carré thinks we should all be having nightmares about. Its director, JJ Messner (who puts together the list), is a former lobbyist for the private military industry. … The main reason is that the concept of the failed state has never existed outside a programme for western intervention. It has always been a way of constructing a rationale for imposing US interests on less powerful nations.”
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.