Drawing on contemporary case studies, explore the relationship between failing states and genocide

Failing States and Genocide

Introduction

The twentieth century was characterised by conflicts - the First World War , Second World War , Cold War , civil wars , and a number of intrastate and interstate conflicts - killing tens of millions of people . Many of these conflicts occurred in failing states . Conflicts are a global phenomenon , but perhaps African countries are most prone to conflicts as exemplified by the cases of the Rwandan genocide and the Darfur crisis . The prevention and resolution of inter- and intrastate conflicts in Africa have become a much debated subject in recent

years , as the region continues to witness old and recent conflicts . However , most conflicts in the region have proved to be resistant to initiatives at resolution (Brock-Utne 2001 ,

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This tackles the relationship between failing states and genocide . The first part defines a failing state and some forms of state failure . The second part discusses the concept of conflict and the nature of conflicts in African countries . The third part describes the humanitarian crises in Rwanda (claimed millions of lives ) and Darfur (which is ongoing and has already killed hundred of thousands of people and how the United Nations and the international community responded to these civil conflicts

Failing States

A failing state is characterised by national divisions , personalisation of politics , the arbitrary imposition of ideologically driven values and practices , as well as the degree to which the state is incapable of reflecting the complexity of society and managing pressure from above and below . Such a state is also often vulnerable to being physically ruptured , ending up in a situation of open civil conflict , foreign intervention or even occupation , and the collapse of political administrative and organisational arrangements , with its sovereignty either strained , eroded or divided . Failing states are marked by varying degrees of incapacity , some of which can leave the remnants of the state as a significant player with which international actors may need to engage . A failing state refers to as the post-colonial state that is , the unconsolidated state in the periphery (Sshrensen 1999 ,

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The forms of failure in these territorial units are many and varied and can be either internal or external or both . The internal causes can be of various types . They can stem from fragmentation of the national elite and breakdown of social . Somalia best illustrates this After the overthrow of the regime of Mohammad Siad Barre in a popular uprising in the late 1980s , the national elite disintegrated and revolutionary forces lost their unity of purpose and turned their guns on one another along the lines of personality , clan and tribal differences . As the fragile state structures collapsed , no single dominant group could emerge to fill the power vacuum to generate a necessary degree of national cohesion and national . The overall effect was that Somalia 's sovereignty was divided , plunging the country into a long-term state of group conflict - a conflict which continues to this day , and which has defied a series of international efforts to bring...