I came across this nifty essay on the Net awhile back, about the seven signs of failed or failiing states. It's from the Spring '98 issue of PARAMETERS, which is the journal of the U.S. Army's War College. You can read the whole thing at http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/98spring/peters.htm, but to summarize, these are the Seven Signs of Failed States:1. There are restrictions on the free flow of information2. Women are subjugated 3. A cultural inability to accept responsibility for individual or collective failure, a.k.a "the Foreign Devil Effect"4. The extended family or clan serves as the basic unit of social organization5. Domination by a restrictive religion; this often ties in to Nos. 1,2, 3, and 6.6. The dominant culture assigns an extremely low valuation to education7. Low prestige is assigned to work; that is, work is seen as something that is done firstly, for survival, and secondly, to become wealthy enough to never have to work againNow, obviously, these come from a profoundly Western viewpoint, and a very modern one. Still, I suspect that signs 3,4,6, and 7 are probably applicable to any culture in any time for determining which societies are going to out-perform or under-perform.Anyway, I highly recommend the article; the author, Lt.Col. Ralph Peters, has a very readable prose style, and a slightly dry wit.Andrew Janssen[As an aside, most Middle-Eastern states score 7 for 7 signs; no African state has fewer than 4.] --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Protect your identity with Yahoo! Mail AddressGuard---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
