Introduction

The dark(er) side of ‘state failure’: state formation and socio-political variation

“…'State collapse, on the one hand, is the breakdown of good governance, law and order' and 'on the other hand, is the extended breakdown of social coherence: society, as the generator of institutions of cohesion and maintenance, can no longer create, aggregate, and articulate the supports and demands that are the foundations of the state'. 12 Representing one of the very first attempts of its kind to try to come to grips with what had vaguely been identified as, say, a dysfunctional form of stateness, it is hardly surprising that Zartmann's definition probably has to be regarded as the most prominent so far, even if it introduced a competing label, namely 'collapsed states'.…”

Conflicts in the Southwest Pacific: the relevance of new security perspectives

“…it loses control over its own agents, who act simply on their own behalf. 55 In terms of consequences, state failure means that the population is deprived of political goods. In the wider international setting state failure can foster the 352 CONTEMPORARY SECURITY POLICY spread of instability and provide havens for international crime and terrorist groups.…”