Sample Week One Post: Profile of a Weak State: Guinea

In the first week of class, we have sought to identify the role weak states can play in creating and sustaining issues of human security. However, the readings and videos we have watched have pointed to many difficulties in identifying which states should be considered weak/fragile or failed. The focus of our first blog assignment is to provide a profile of an identified weak state by one of our sources and evaluate why that state is considered weak.

Profile of a weak state: Guinea



According to the 2013 Failed States Index, Guinea is a "critical country," ranked 14th in the world for state fragility. However, as we are aware of the problems with definitions, we have to ask why that is. Two recent articles, one in the Wall Street Journal and another in The New Yorker provide troubling profiles of a country that is struggling to strengthen democratic institutions in the country.

First, lets consider some of the facts of the country and look back at the Failed States Index. The CIA Factbook argues that the economy of Guinea is one of the smallest in the world, despite having a large collection of natural resources. The mention of natural resources in a poor country is reminiscent of our readings from the Collier book, which argues that natural resources present a trap for developing countries, as institutions before resource discovery are important for ensuring that resources are utilized properly. However, according the New Yorker, the current government in Guinea is struggling with the corruption of the previous regime, which may have sold one of the largest ore deposits in the world for below market value (though the company involved in the transaction denies this).

The dispute over natural resources in Guinea highlights the fact that the political situation has been very fluid in the past few years. Since independence from France in the 1960s, Guinea has been an authoritarian state until their first free and fair elections in 2010. The Failed State Index gives Guinea a horrible score for state legitimacy, that of 9.8. This score surprises me because the country has made a tentative transition to democracy, yet the Failed State Index actually gives that indicator the worst score. What could be explaining this difference?

The article from the Wall Street Journal gives some insight to this issue. That article suggests that while there has been an election, much else has been left unsolved. Electricity is apparently quite rare (both articles mention frequent blackouts), but more than that, the elected government is not seen as legitimate in certain quarters. Many of the reforms that the current government has undertaken have not trickled down to the population, where many do not have access to clean tap water. Furthermore, while the presidential elections were fair in the eyes of the international community, there were numerous delays concerning legislative elections, which has culminated in clashes between opposition militias and the government.




These clashes and continued anger towards the government suggests that while there has never been a civil war in the country of Guinea, the state remains volatile. And overall, we can see that Guinea unfortunately satisfies many of the criteria that Collier, Patrick and the Failed States Index proposes as being indicators of overall state weakness: tensions between the government and the populace, an inability to provide for many basic services, a natural resource trap and demographic pressures from a young population that feels that the government is not looking out for them.

While we will continue to struggle in defining a weak state and the human security issues found within, this brief profile hopefully provides a better understanding of what life is like in one of these countries.