One way to build political coalitions for greater use of international law in the U.S. would be to use international law to advance political goals of folks who would otherwise be suspicious of international law. So I wonder if there is some reason to think liberal internationalists would be willing to embrace the argument made in a recent book by...
My earlier post on Somalia received some interesting comments which I would like to develop further. First, framing state failure as a continuum is important because where a state stands in this continuum (i.e. its ability to react to international security emergencies that occur in its territory) informs decision makers on what (and if) actions are required by the international community....
Here is the letter of the EU Ambassador to the US to Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell protesting the (then) imminent execution of Teresa Lewis, among other international voices attempting to win commutation for the convicted killer. Obviously the effort failed. I'm not sure that there has been any episode in which one can establish a causal link between such international...
My apologies for this late entry in the discussion of state failure. I’d like to address what I see as the central legal paradox that Chiara raises in her fascinating new book. That is the disjunction between the criteria for creating states and the criteria governing their extinction. Chiara demonstrates that many failed states might well be ineligible for statehood...
Chiara Giorgetti devotes a good part of her book to the reactions of the international community, and the tools available to it, with regard to the lack of a functioning government in Somalia since 1991 and the consequent ripple effects that the failure of functioning governance there has produced on other countries. The example she gives of the management of Somali...
President Obama's UN General Assembly speech this morning highlighted the place of civil society as an agent of progress: Civil society is the conscience of our communities, and America will always extend our engagement abroad with citizens beyond the halls of government. We will call out those who suppress ideas, and serve as a voice for the voiceless....
I'd like to pick up a thread is in Chiara's book and is teased out in both Gian Luca's post and Ben Davis's comment on Chiara's most recent post on Somalia: the view that state failure is notan "on/ off" characteristic, but rather is a continuum ranging from governments that are somewhat incompetent (insert your state of choice here) to essentially nonexistent...
The U.S. Congress is just about to have their much-dreaded midterm elections, and they will probably not do much before November 2 except to spend millions of dollars on annoying campaign ads. But it looks like before they break for the election, Congress may vote on two bills that may violate U.S. obligations under the WTO and NAFTA. First, Congress is...
Between 1998 and 2000, I worked in Somalia for the UN Development Program. This experience very much informs my view on how international system deals (or does not) with state failure. As it is known, Somalia has been without a functioning government for the past 20 years. And Somalia is often referred to as the main example of State failure. In...
State failure is an almost intractably thorny question for international law. Its intractability is both practical and conceptual. It is practical because state failure – defined by Giorgetti as ‘the prolonged implosion of governmental structures and the ensuring incapacity of the government to provide political goods to its internal and external constituencies’ – poses tremendous political, social and humanitarian challenges...
Chiara's book is quite timely and topical and fills a puzzling gap in international legal studies. The concept of failed state, mostly epitomized by Somalia after 1991, became fashionable in the United Nations in the 1990s as the Security Council discovered its muscles under Chapter VII of the Charter and broadened the notion of threat to the peace to encompass humanitarian...
Failed and failing states are relatively new phenomenons that have not yet been recorded in the international law radar screen. However, the rise of piracy off the coast of Somalia, and increased instances of terrorism and international organized crime underline their relevance in the international legal system. In my book, A Principled Approach to State Failure: International Community Actions in Emergency...
