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International Security & Failed States: Embracing Identity-Centric Strategies Of State-Building, Paul S. Holland

Senior Theses and Projects

In the twenty-first century, the balance of power between states is no longer the only source of global insecurity, but is joined by non-state threats that lurk behind a curtain of de jure sovereignty in failed states. Diseases, piracy, terrorists, criminal cartels, and rapacious corporations all take advantage of the poverty and lack of institutional capacity endemic to failed states. The resulting instability spreads across entire regions, affecting the global core and periphery states alike. It is therefore the security threat posed by failed states that necessitates state-building. This paper examines the evolution of state sovereignty and the role identity …