What is State Failure? The Curious Case of Pakistan

By Saskia Sassen and Razi Ahmed

Foreign Policy magazine issues a Failed States Index once a year in conjunction with the Fund for Peace. A number of indicators are used to determine state failure: demographic pressures, the presence of refugees and internally displaced people, group grievances, human flight, uneven development, delegitimization of the state, human rights violations, an unaccountable security apparatus, failing public services, economic decline, elite factionalizing, and external intervention. The most recent Index, released in July, ranked Pakistan tenth among the sixty states categorized as failing to some degree. (Read Further)

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Capitalist Economists Debate the Global Economic Crisis

Some of the world’s leading capitalist policymakers and economists participate in what the Financial Times described as an “all-consuming contemporary economic debate: austerity versus stimulus.” The writers, including Larry Summers, Jean-Claude Trichet and the FT’s Martin Wolf will argue whether cutting now risks suffocating the fragile recovery of the global economy. Please note that the FT does not allow cutting and cross-posting their articles on independent websites. To read further follow the link provided. (Read Contributions)

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Basel bank capital buffer plan unveiled

The Basel Committee has published a proposal on “countercyclical capital buffers” to strengthen the global banking industry. Please note that the FT does not allow cutting and cross-posting their articles on independent websites. (Read further)

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Sowing Crisis

To listen to a talk by the author, Rashid Khalidi, go to the Amherst College page Rashid Khalidi, “Sowing Crisis in the Middle East.

For a mainstream liberal response to Khalidi, see: “Six Questions for Rashid Khalidi, Author of Sowing Crisis” published by Harper’s Magazine in the United States.

Columbia University historian Rashid Khalidi has been a forceful critic of the Bush Administration’s heavy-handed conduct in the Middle East, often drawing on modern historical parallels to argue that the approaches taken are short-sighted. In his latest book, Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East, he recaps the Cold War era in Middle Eastern history, showing how the United States dominated the region throughout the period but was able to achieve remarkably little nonetheless. Scott Horton, a specialist on International Law and Human Rights put six questions to Khalidi about his new book. (Read Further)

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