Zimbabwe: Second most failed state in the world

The award winning magazine uses what it calls 12 indicators of state cohesion and performance, compiled through a close examination of more than 30,000 publicly available sources. Over 177 states are then ranked in the order of the most at risk of failure, to the one at least risk. The final index reveals the 60 most vulnerable states.

Assistant Editor Elizabeth Dickenson told Newsreel the rankings are based on the period January 2008 to December 2008. The last 6 months of this year, which have seen the formation of a coalition government, have not been factored in and will only be reflected in rankings to be released at the end of the year.

The question for many would naturally be – why is a country like Iraq (number 6) ranked better than Zimbabwe? The Foreign Policy magazine argued that a greater risk of failure is not always synonymous with greater consequences of failure.

Zimbabwe is technically failing more than Iraq, but the geopolitical implications of state failure in Iraq would be far greater than in Zimbabwe. They also said while Iraq is failing its trajectory may be toward greater success while Zimbabwe and Burma were failing because their governments are strong enough to choke the life out of their societies.

In 4 consecutive years Zimbabwe has been climbing the index by one place each year. In 2006 it was ranked 5th, 2007 4th, 2008 3rd and now its reached second place in 2009. The other big shock is that the country is only 0.7 points better off than Somali which has 114,7 points compared to 114 notched up under Mugabes regime.

Foreign Policy magazine describe the power sharing arrangement between ZANU PF and the MDC as weak but said it has given hope for some improvements this year. Inflation has abated and basic security is slowly returning to the streets, though countless challenges remain.