Fall States Index

On the Foreign Policy magazine list, the higher a country’s score, the lower is its rank.

For a few days every year, newspapers and editorials all at once focus their attention on the worrisome state of our neighbours and rivals. This outpouring of news and opinion is triggered by Foreign Policy magazine, which releases its Failed States Index once a year to a world inordinately fond of lists.

India, listed as ‘borderline’, is in a hostile neighbourhood. China, Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are ‘in danger’ of failure, while Pakistan is famously on alert. 

Countries are measured on twelve parameters. These are, as the magazine notes,  ‘Demographic pressures, refugees/IDPs, group grievance, human flight, uneven development, economic decline, delegitimisation of the state, public services, human rights, security apparatus, factionalised elites, and external intervention.’

The parameters mark countries out of a total score of 120 (each parameter has ten points). Perversely, the higher a country’s score, the lower it ranks in terms of stability on the list. Somalia, for example, with a total of 114 points, comes first. Pakistan, with 102.5, is tenth. India has a score of 79.2, making it 79th. The individual parameters are more instructive. On three of the 12 parameters, India and Pakistan are more or less matched. Under ‘mounting demographic pressures’, both rate 8.1. ‘Uneven economic development along group lines’ has India faring worse. Both are similarly rated when it comes to the ‘progressive deterioration of public services’.

While the Index is provocatively titled, it does not list ‘failed states’, only states on the way to failure. It notes that there are stable states deteriorating faster than failing states, and some failing states that are improving. The index provides an indication, not a judgment.

About The Author

Rahul Bhatia