Lawless Places, Yemen Edition

Barak and I end up talking quite a bit about the misperception that states such as Somalia and Afghanistan are failed. As Barak likes to point out, the problem isn’t that there is NO governance, but rather that it is not the Westphalian statehood model of governance we have all grown accustomed to in the US. Here, now, almost as it was written just for us, is a blog post about similar ‘ungoverned’ areas of Yemen. According to the authors, the correct term is ‘alternatively governed’, which I agree with, although it is close enough to late ’90s PC terminology to make me giggle.

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Barak January 31, 2010 at 9:07 pm

Thanks for posting this, Mariel. The problem for the US government is not failed states, but countries that refuse to govern in ways the US government likes. This puts a different spin on US national security policy. Saving failed states sounds benevolent. Saying that the US intervenes overseas to get policies it likes sounds a bit more caustic – and realistic.
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Lawless Places, Yemen Edition

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