IMPACT OF FAILED STATES ON GLOBAL PEACE AND SECURITY   31.10.03

By Kazi Anwarul Masud (former Secretary and ambassador of Bangladesh)

Apparent calm signaled by the end of the cold war had in effect hid  the dark clouds of an incoming twister that were to assail the different parts of the world in quick succession. It had seemed, albeit fallaciously, that the Kantian world of a “state of peace” was not a utopian idea but a reality because the civilized world governed by a system of law would feel impelled to leave the state of lawlessness that characterized the international state of nature. The end of the cold war also produced Francis Fukuyama’s dramatic “end of history” occasioned by the triumph of western capitalism and liberal democracy as communism being seemingly discredited there was no longer a credible alternative form of social, political and economic organization to compete with the victorious idea and thus the ultimate end or destination of human history had been arrived at. Fukuyama’s assertion was however diluted by the question posed by Cynthia Enloe (The Morning After: Sexual Politics after the Cold War), widely accredited as the first author to attempt to make feminist sense of international relations, “ any post-war time is fraught with questions. These post-war years are no different. The first is always: what had changed? The formal ending of super power rivalry does not look like dawning of a brand new day in the ongoing evolution of politics… we are still living in a time where grand politics and politics of every day life continue to be defined in large part by the anxieties and actions of the cold war”. Even if one were to set aside momentarily gendered notion of security  and structural violence embedded in unequal social relations, one has to take into account post-colonial failed and failing states, some sustained by cold war rivalry and others joining their ranks as cold war props vanished.

 The survey identified corruption as the most inhibiting factor in doing business in Bangladesh. Inefficient bureaucracy, inadequate infrastructure, poor law and order, policy instability also affect the country’s business environment (The Daily Star—October 31, 2003). Transparency International has held the police in Bangladesh as corrupt and also indicated the presence of police- criminal nexus among some members of the force. Custodial deaths at the hands of law enforcement authorities are not unknown in Bangladesh. US State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report 2002 not only described Bangladeshi police as being “generally ineffective in upholding the law” but “often are slow to assist members of religious minorities who have been victims of crime”. It should, however, be admitted that police brutality is not directed towards any particular religious community but is quite agnostic in its choice of victims.

 The cold war competition compounded the malaise as competing super powers showered the failing states with economic and military assistance. They thus ignored the fundamental premise of “democratic peace” which stipulates that democracies do not generally go to war against other democracies because internal democratic norms promote external democratic behavior and institutional checks and balances of democracies place constraints on the aggressive behavior of the leaders. The end of the cold war which dried up economic assistance pushed many of the failing states into the black hole of politico-economic disaster. Ironically the end of the cold war also brought along the “democratic moment” when many erstwhile dictatorships were suddenly wearing the garb of democracy. Because many of these states had known only authoritarianism for decades their sudden introduction to democracy brought forth a challenge to both the rulers and the ruled about how to strike a balance between enjoyment of rights with duties and obligations to the state. Besides the disappearance of a strong central authority encouraged pockets of chaos and anarchy along ethnic and religious lines or among minorities who had felt asphyxiated in the past regimes. Taking the advantage of the weakness of the central authority gangs and criminal syndicate assumed control over streets of cities. Ordinary police force either became paralyzed or was infected with the contagion of criminality. Since anarchy became the norm the ordinary citizens turned to godfathers/ warlords or other strong figures for protection.

More often than not state failures are man made. Leadership decisions and leadership failures have destroyed states and contributed to the fragility of existing institutions. Mobutu’s kleptocratic rule and Robert Mugabe’s obduracy are two such examples. But since Robert Kagan’s prescription of military solution to security issues does not have universal appeal, one could heed Jack Straw’s advice( Failed and Failing States—06.09.02) to take recourse to a range of tools—some developmental and some diplomatic—to strengthen states prone to failure. Doing so is far less expensive than reconstructing states after failure. Because prevention of state failure is imperative it hoped that the recent UNSC debates and the just concluded Madrid conference on Iraq have impressed upon the high and mighty that multilateral approach rather than display of muscularity holds the key to real peace and prosperity of the world.