Product Description

Weak or failed states - where no government is in control - are the source of many of the world's most serious problems, from poverty, AIDS and drugs to terrorism. What can be done to help? The problem of weak states and the need for state-building has existed for many years, but it has been urgent since September 11 and Afghanistan and Iraq. The formation of proper public institutions, such as an honest police force, uncorrupted courts, functioning schools and medical services and a strong civil service, is fraught with difficulties. We know how to help with resources, people and technology across borders, but state building requires methods that are not easily transported. The ability to create healthy states from nothing has suddenly risen to the top of the world agenda. State building has become a crucial matter of global security. In this hugely important book, Francis Fukuyama explains the concept of state-building and discusses the problems and causes of state weakness and its national and international effects.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #79473 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
'Thought-provoking... svelte but sophisticated' Sunday Times 'Wide-ranging thoughtful analysis.' Newsweek 'Debate-provoking sharpness' Observer 'Fukuyama has no solution. But, for me, it is enough that he offers so clear a diagnosis... His book should make a lot of people think.' Times Higher Education Supplement 'There are some insightful and intelligent analyses... It's undeniably high-quality source material for students of politics and history and anyone who wants to know more about how the world works.' Focus

About the Author
Francis Fukuyama is the author of The End of History, Trust, The Great Disruption, Our Posthuman Future and State Building. All have been international bestsellers, translated and published in many languages. They have also been hugely influential. Fukuyama is in constant demand around the world in the media and as a speaker. He is Professor of International Political Economy at John Hopkins University.

Customer Reviews

pretty useless
a 200-page book that could have been cut down to 5. Indeed, most of the book has nothing to do with state building, including the long section on whether American foreign policy is better then EU's one - certainly an issue of which Fukuyama, even if I can't share his ideas, has a better understanding than development studies.
The author says that state buldign is important, which is not such a surprising piece of news in 2004. He spends a lot of words on why it is so and what are the consequences of not doing that, but, hello, we know that as well. The problem is HOW and Fukuyama has not an answer and proposes no new ideas.

Some points worth making
This book make some good points, and most valuable of all (in my opinion) is the way that Fukuyama revisits and critically assesses some assumptions about statehood, development, institutions &c which are so widely believed that we barely realise they're there.

However, there are parts of the book that get too bogged down in particular subjects, such as organisational theory. I'd suggest cutting half of that bit out, but then the book would be even slimmer (I read it in a single sitting, on a flight from Jo'burg to London).

This book does not provide easy answers to development and state-building, because there *are* no easy answers, but it certainly helps us ask better questions.