Confronting Poverty: Weak States and U.S. National Security

257 Pages·2010·4.46 MB·English

by  Susan E. Rice

Confronting Poverty
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Confronting Poverty
weak states and U.s. national secUrity
sUsan e. rice
corinne Graff
carlos PascUal
editors
brookings institution press
Washington, D.C.
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Copyright © 2010
the brookings institution
1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20036
www.brookings.edu
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing
from the Brookings Institution Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
Confronting poverty : weak states and U.S. national security / Susan E. Rice,
Corinne Graff, and Carlos Pascual.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8157-0390-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Poverty—Developing countries. 2. Political stability—Developing countries.
3. Failed states—Developing countries. 4. National security—United States.
I. Rice, Susan E. II. Graff, Corinne. III. Pascual, Carlos. IV. Title.
HC59.72.P6C66 2009
355’.03301724—dc22 2009039055
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed on acid-free paper
Typeset in Sabon
Composition by Cynthia Stock
Silver Spring, Maryland
Printed by R. R. Donnelley
Harrisonburg, Virginia
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Contents
Foreword vii
Strobe Talbott
1 The National Security Implications of Global Poverty 1
Susan E. Rice
2 Poverty and State Weakness 23
Susan E. Rice
3 Poverty, Development, and Violent Extremism
in Weak States 42
Corinne Graff
4 Poverty, State Weakness, and Civil War 90
Andrew Loomis
5 Feeding Insecurity? Poverty, Weak States,
and Climate Change 125
Joshua Busby
6 State Weakness and Infectious Diseases 167
Miriam Estrin and Carl Malm
7 Conclusion and Policy Implications 202
Carlos Pascual and Corinne Graff
Contributors 231
Index 233
v
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Foreword
t
hroughout history, conflict has arisen between and among major pow-
ers, often because a strong state tries to prove itself stronger than oth-
ers. The good news about the current era is that the major powers are
at peace; their going to war, while not unimaginable, is highly unlikely.
That is largely because they have a stake—that is, a national interest—in
the maintenance of a stable, prosperous and peaceful international sys-
tem. One big piece of bad news is the subject of this timely and forward-
looking book: the threat that weak and failed states pose to the welfare
of people across the planet—a threat that is virtually certain to increase
in the years to come unless strong states and the international commu-
nity as a whole take concerted remedial action.
For states as for individual human beings, weakness and failure are
often both a cause and a consequence of extreme poverty. Strong, pros-
perous countries have an ethical obligation to do all they can to end
the poverty that degrades the lives of 3 billion people in the developing
world. Yet poverty is also a national-security challenge for all, includ-
ing the United States. Poverty increases the risk of civil war, facilitates
the spread of many communicable diseases, exacerbates vulnerability to
climate change, and creates conditions that violent forces can exploit.
The global financial crisis has further destabilized the world’s poorest
countries, adding new urgency to the issue of weak and failed states.
vii
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viii FoREwoRd
This book, coedited by three former colleagues at Brookings—Susan
E. Rice, Corinne Graff, and Carlos Pascual—serves as a timely reminder
to U.S. policymakers that alleviating global poverty and shoring up weak
states are not only humanitarian and economic imperatives, but key com-
ponents of a more balanced and sustainable U.S. national security strategy.
Confronting Poverty: Weak States and U.S. National Security draws
on examples from across the developing world, focuses on the effects of
low income and bad governance in weak states, and explores the com-
plex and often indirect dynamics that can lock countries—and entire
regions—in a downward spiral of continued poverty and civil strife.
The book examines the phenomenon of weak and failed states in the
context of four broad transnational challenges: (1) violent extremism,
(2) conflict with spillover effects, (3) climate change, and (4) the spread
of infectious diseases. The chapters that follow clarify the connections
between these threats and poverty while correcting common misconcep-
tions about what those connections are.
At Brookings, we put a premium on bringing hard-headed, high-
quality, independent, fact-based research to bear on the twin tasks of
analyzing the problem and proposing solutions. In that spirit, all the
authors close ranks behind the need to prioritize economic development
and poverty alleviation in weak states as a means of bolstering interna-
tional and U.S. national security, and the concluding chapter elaborates
on that overarching policy recommendation and highlights lessons
learned about the effectiveness of aid in weak states.
Confronting Poverty grows out of a project on global poverty and
U.S. national security that Susan E. Rice directed at Brookings from
2002 through January 2009, before she was appointed U.S. permanent
representative to the United Nations. The book builds on the findings
of the Index of State Weakness in the Developing World, an analytic
tool that Rice published in 2008 in a Brookings report coauthored with
Stewart Patrick, now at the Council on Foreign Relations. The index
utilizes twenty indicators in four key areas of state function (economic
performance, political governance, internal peace and security, and
social welfare) to measure state performance and rank developing coun-
tries. The book also benefits from the expertise of then vice president
and director of foreign policy Carlos Pascual, whose previous work at
Brookings focused on conflict management and economic development.
Because two of the book’s editors are now public servants, I want to
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FoREwoRd ix
stress that their chapters here reflect their personal views and research
they conducted during their term at Brookings. Their work on this book
was completed before taking up their current posts. The book does not
represent the views of the U.S. Department of State or the U.S. govern-
ment. In addition, since Brookings is committed to nonpartisanship in
all it does, the editors invited authors with diverse perspectives to con-
tribute chapters, so the volume also includes writings by Joshua Busby
(LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas–Austin), Andrew
Loomis (Department of State), Carl Malm (Georgetown University), and
Miriam Estrin (Department of State). Loomis, Malm, and Estrin wrote
their contributions while they were employed by Brookings, before tak-
ing up their current positions. Their views are solely their own and do
not necessarily represent the views of the editors, Brookings, or any
other organization represented by the writers.
Throughout the writing process, the authors benefited from the
expertise of numerous colleagues. At Brookings, Michael O’Hanlon and
Bruce Jones made important contributions to the book through feed-
back and other assistance with the project, and the authors would like
to express their gratitude to each one of them. Brookings colleagues,
and in some cases former colleagues, Daniel Byman, Justin Vaisse,
Jonathan Laurence, Jeremy Shapiro, and Daniel Benjamin were also
generous with their time and provided helpful feedback on early drafts
of the manuscript. The authors would also like to acknowledge Strobe
Talbott, James Steinberg, and Lael Brainard for their unwavering sup-
port of this book project.
The manuscript also benefited from the expertise of the following
individuals: John Steinbruner, a former Brookings scholar and director
of foreign policy who is now professor of public policy at the School
of Public Policy, University of Maryland, and director of the Center for
International and Security Studies at Maryland; Harley Feldbaum of
the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies; Stephen
Morrison of the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Geoff
Dabelko of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars;
Cullen Hendrix of the University of North Texas; Nicholas Sambanis of
Yale University and Brookings; Papia Debroy of the University of Mich-
igan; Michael Lund of Creative Associates; Sharon Morris of Mercy
Corps; Janet Lewis of Harvard University; and Kameron Kordestani of
McKinsey & Company.
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