State Failure in SubSaharan Africa The Crisis of by Catherine Scott PAPERBACK

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

State Failure in Sub-Saharan AfricaThe Crisis of Post-Colonial Order\nAuthor(s): Catherine Scott\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, United Kingdom\nImprint: I.B. Tauris\nISBN-13: 9780755601080, 978-0755601080\nSynopsis\nHow should failed states in Africa be understood? Catherine Scott here critically engages with the concept of state failure and provides an historical reinterpretation. She shows that, although the concept emerged in the context of the post-Cold War new world order, the phenomenon has been attendant throughout (and even before) the development of the Westphalian state system. Contemporary failed states, however, differ from their historical counterparts in one fundamental respect: they fail within their existing borders and continue to be recognised as something that they are not. This peculiarity derives from international norms instituted in the era of decolonisation, which resulted in the inviolability of state borders and the supposed univer.