CYPRUS INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY
INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEARCH
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS PROGRAM
2020-2021 Spring Semester
INR503 Issues in International Security
Article Analysis Questions
1. Primary information about the article (Writer/s, title, source)
Writer: Stewart Patrick
Title: “Failed” States and Global Security: Empirical Questions and Policy Dilemmas
Source: International Studies Review, Volume 9, Issue 4, December 2007, Pages
644–662
2. What is the purpose of the article?
To analyze the connection between state failure and transnational security threats
3. What is the subject of the article?
Causes, Consequence and Solution of the failed state.
4. What is the thesis/argument of the article?
How does state weakness correlate with the main transnational threats to global
security and how do innovative policy act as a panacea to the specific
weakness/threat?
5. Write your ideas about the article.
Most of these “failed states” do not pose direct military or security threats to the West. Their
main source of menace is indirect—for example, these states may harbour terrorists that
attack Western interests. Migrants are also increasingly seen in both the United States and
Europe as posing a threat; this is intensified by irresponsible media coverage that invokes the
spectre of invading hordes coming to steal jobs and drain Western coffers.
Failed states can no longer perform basic functions such as education, security, or
governance, usually due to fractious violence or extreme poverty. Within this power vacuum,
people fall victim to competing factions and crime, and sometimes the United Nations or
neighboring states intervene to prevent a humanitarian disaster. However, states fail not only
because of internal factors. Foreign governments can also knowingly destabilize a state by
fueling ethnic warfare or supporting rebel forces, causing it to collapse.
Good governance programs and security sector reform are politically motivated however, they
may even.tually lead to alleviation of some the specific issues encountered by these failed
states