Gambia among nations on the brink as a "failed state"

Note this copy of a report by Bubacarr Ceesay August 26, 2005:

The first annual report on the list of potential "failed states"; research conducted by the Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy has listed the Gambia as a potential candidate among 60 nations on the brink of collapse. Ivory Cost made the top of the list and Gambia taking the last spot 60. Several African countries including DRC, Guinea, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Somalia, and Chad also made the top ten. Interestingly, none of Gambia's closest neighbors Senegal and Guinea Bissau made the list. Surprisingly, Gambia's longtime ally Mauritania and now a country under military rule did not make the list.

The report which relies on numerous media reports on nations and utilizes high-tech methods for data computations to reach a conclusive ranking; thus stated:

"How do you know a failed state when you see one? Of course, a government that has lost control of its territory or of the monopoly on the legitimate use of force has earned the label.

To present a more precise picture of the scope and implications of the problem, the Fund for Peace, an independent research organization, and FOREIGN POLICY have conducted a global ranking of weak and failing states. Using 12 social, economic, political, and military indicators, we ranked 60 states in order of their vulnerability to violent internal conflict. (For each indicator, the Fund for Peace computed scores using software that analyzed data from tens of thousands of international and local media sources from the last half of 2004. For a complete discussion of the 12 indicators, please go to Foreign Policy or www.fundforpeace.org.) The resulting index provides a profile of the new world disorder of the 21st century and demonstrates that the problem of weak and failing states is far more serious than generally thought. About 2 billion people live in insecure states, with varying degrees of vulnerability to widespread civil conflict."

Tags: Gambia Darfur Sudan DRC Ivory Coast Guinea Sierra Leone Liberia Liberia Somalia Chad Senegal Guinea Bissau failed state failed states