Highlights
Definitions of the terms 'fragile', 'crisis' and 'failed' state, as used by the Crisis States Research Centre.
Read our Phase 2 Research Overview
Find out about the
key themes that emerged from
Phase 1
Read our Phase 1 Final Report
An Institutional Approach to Studying Crisis and Breakdown:
Phase One of the Crisis States Programme (2001-2005)
The aim of the Crisis States Research Centre at DESTIN is to provide new understanding of the causes of crisis and breakdown in the developing world and the processes of avoiding or overcoming them. We want to know why some political systems and communities, in what can be called the ‘fragile states’, found in many of the poor and middle income countries, have broken down even to the point of violent conflict while others have not. Our work asks whether processes of globalisation have precipitated or helped to avoid crisis and social breakdown.
Research Objectives of Phase 1:
(a) To assess how constellations of power at local, national and global levels drive processes of institutional change, collapse and reconstruction and in doing so will challenge simplistic paradigms about the beneficial effects of economic and political liberalisation.
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- (b) To examine the effects of international interventions promoting democratic reform, human rights and market competition on the 'conflict management capacity' and production and distributional systems of existing politics.
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- (c) To analyse how communities have responded to crisis, and the incentives and moral frameworks that have led either toward violent of non-violent outcomes.
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- (d) To examine what kinds of formal and informal institutional arrangements poor communities have constructed to deal with economic survival and local order.
The following links provide access to our Phase 1 research documents and publications:
Initial Phase 1 Research Agenda
Overview of Emergent Themes from Phase 1
To find out about our current research agenda, click here.