Pakistan has been ranked the 12th most unstable country in the world – worse even than North Korea at 13th – in the 2007 Failed State Index issued on Monday by Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace. For the second year in a row, Sudan tops the index, largely because of the humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur. Iraq now ranks as the second most unstable country and Afghanistan the eighth. The other seven countries in the top 10 are all in Africa. They include Somalia, Zimbabwe, the Ivory Coast and Congo. The index of 177 countries gives each country points out of 10 for 12 “social indicators of instability”, with higher scores indicating greater instability. Pakistan’s highest scores were for ‘security apparatus’ (9.5), ‘factionalised elites’ (9.5) and ‘group grievance’ (9.0). Its best score was for the economy (5.8).
Iraq fell from fourth place last year to second. “The report tells us that Iraq is sinking fast,” said Fund for Peace President Pauline Baker, according to the Washington Post. “We believe it’s reached the point of no return. We have recommended—based on studies done every six months since the US invasion—that the administration face up to the reality that the only choices for Iraq are how and how violently it will break up.” In a parallel series of reports, the Fund for Peace, a research and advocacy group, suggests a policy of managed partition for Iraq. The experiences of Iraq, as well as Afghanistan, show that billions of dollars in aid may be futile unless accompanied by a functioning government.