Fixing Failed States, by Ashraf Ghani and Clare Lockhart
Friday, May 16, 2008 @ 7:30pm
Hart House, Library
(7 Hart House Circle)
Today between forty and sixty nations, home to close to two billion people, have either collapsed or are teetering on the brink of failure. The world’s worst problems–terrorism, drugs and human trafficking, absolute poverty, ethnic conflict, disease, genocide–originate in such states, and the international community has devoted billions of dollars to solving the problem. Yet by and large the effort has not succeeded. Ashraf Ghani and Clare Lockhart have taken an active part in the effort to save failed states for many years, serving as World Bank officials, as advisers to the UN, and as high-level participants in the new government of Afghanistan.
Now, in Fixing Failed States, they describe the issue–vividly and convincingly–offering an on-the-ground picture of why past efforts have not worked and advancing a groundbreaking new solution to this most pressing of global crises. Military force, while certainly necessary on occasion, cannot solve the fundamental problems, and humanitarian interventions cost billions yet do not leave capable states in their wake. Ghani and Lockhart argue that only an integrated state-building approach can heal these failing countries. As they explain, many of these countries already have the resources they need, if only we knew how to connect them to global knowledge and put them to work in the right way. Their state-building strategy, which assigns responsibility equally among the international community, national leaders, and citizens, maps out a clear path to political and economic stability. The authors provide a clear, practical framework for achieving these ends, supporting their case with first-hand examples of struggling territories such as Afghanistan, Sudan, Kosovo and Nepal as well as the world’’s success stories–Singapore, Ireland, and even the American South. The battle against terror, poverty, climate change, and much more cannot be won unless we can save these nations.
In Fixing Fixed States, two of the world’s foremost authorities offer a way out of the current crisis–a framework for re-imagining the international system. It is a book that is unique in its essential optimism–an optimism that the authors have earned through their own substantial real-world efforts in failed states.
Ashraf Ghani holds the post of Chancellor of Kabul University and is former Minister of Finance, Afghanistan. A native of Afghanistan, he has taught at Kabul University, Aarhus University, UC Berkeley, and Johns Hopkins University where he still holds an adjunct professorship. The main focus of his academic research is social theory, development and the political economy of state formation.
Prior to assuming his current post, Mr. Ghani spent several years as lead anthropologist at the World Bank. In October 2001 he became Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi. When the Taliban fell from power in Afghanistan and the Afghan Interim Administration took control, Dr. Ghani acted as the Chief Advisor to the Chairman Karzai. In April of 2002 Dr. Ghani was named the Executive Director of the Afghan Assistance Coordination Authority. From June 2002 to December 2004 he served as the Finance Minister of the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan. He implemented a wide-ranging series of monetary and fiscal reforms, earning the Asia’s Best Finance Minister of the Year Award in 2003. He carried out a comprehensive seven year public investment program of the country called Securing Afghanistan’s Future, in response to which the donors pledged $8.2 billion for three years and agreed to consider an additional commitment of $19.3 billion in three years time.
In recognition of his services, he was awarded the Sayed Jamal-ud-Din Afghani medal, the highest civilian award in the country. Dr. Ghani has written for various publications, including the New York Times and Herald Tribune, and broadcast widely through the Persian and Pashtun services of the BBC and Voice of America.
Clare Lockhart is Director for the Institute for State Effectiveness. She has worked for the World Bank, the United Nations and advised the Government of Afghanistan in Kabul on its strategy and programs from 2002 to 2005.
