Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- PART ONE: DEFINING THE CONTEXT: The creeping "sovereignty gap" -- Reversing history -- Webs and flows of cooperation -- Failed politics -- The promises and perils of aid -- PART TWO: DEFINING THE STATE FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY: Toward a multifunctional view of the state -- The framework: the ten functions of the state -- PART THREE: A NEW AGENDA FOR STATE BUILDING: International compacts: sovereignty strategies -- National programs: the challenge of implementation -- CONCLUSION: Collective power.

"Fixing Failed States" addresses one of the central issues of our times: the proliferation of failed states across the world and our inability to stabilize them. There are between forty and sixty failed states, and they house one billion people. The world's worst problems-terrorism, drug and human trafficking, absolute poverty, ethnic conflict, disease, genocide-originate in such states, and the international community has devoted billions upon billions of dollars to solving the problem. Yet by and large, the effort has failed. The authors explain the failure stems in part from an outmoded vision of the state system based on the framers of the post-World War II order's vision: relatively independent, unified states that control markets and rely on authoritarianism when necessary. The world we actually live in is far different. Identities and loyalties don't necessarily correspond to traditional nation-states, and nations are far less autonomous than in the past. The task at hand, they argue, is to develop novel strategies informed by the realities of our fully globalized world. International institutions, therefore, should prioritize fostering mutually reinforcing bonds between states, civil societies, and markets. -- Description from http://www.effectivestates.org (Jan. 9, 2012).