The American newspaper "The Hill" said that to the same extent that the "Democracy Summit" that President-elect Joe Biden will hold after his inauguration to renew Washington's commitment to spreading democracy in the world and affirming its alliance with Western democracies, it is also important for the government to develop The next strategy for dealing with states is the exact opposite, ie "failed states".
The newspaper believes - in a report by the researcher and former diplomat David Tavory - that this matter is very important at the present time, because the epidemic has led to the deterioration of the civil and economic system in the most stable countries of the world, and the countries that were already in a continuous decline towards failure - whether due to the absence of Legitimate government or armed conflict, popular discontent, mass violations of human rights or humanitarian crises - pushed by the pandemic to the brink of the abyss.
And she adds that when a country collapses, this constitutes one of the biggest threats to the security and prosperity of the United States in the future due to three considerations. The first is that any failed state quickly turns into a safe haven for terrorism, and the second consideration is that these countries cause humanitarian and refugee crises that "reach our shores and require our attention." Even if we try to ignore it. "
As for the third and most worrying consideration for Washington - according to the newspaper - it is that failed states are working to empower the United States' opponents in the world, as is the case with Iran, for example, which uses its unstable neighbor Iraq as a field for the battle against the United States, or as Russia does in Assad's Syria, Or China, which is taking advantage of the failing states in Africa to empower autocratic leaders who serve their interests.
According to an annual report prepared by the Fund for Peace - an American research institution concerned with fragile countries - based on data collected before the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, more than 30% of the world’s countries are mainly failed states, while the United Nations estimates that 1.8 billion people currently live in fragile states and that number will rise to 2.3 billion by 2030.
The newspaper believes that the administration of President-elect Joe Biden must deal with this dilemma through several basic steps, one of which is to bring the United States back into the diplomatic arena.
The American leadership during Donald Trump's presidency - the newspaper adds - was absent from many of the thorny world crises, just as the "America first" slogan raised by Trump was a "messy and contradictory approach" that did not amount to a coherent vision of the leadership, and it was only an excuse not to do diplomatic work. The hard work required when there is no clear and immediate payoff for the president's person.
The newspaper considered that Trump's "America First" slogan is a "messy and contradictory approach" that does not amount to a coherent vision (Anatolia)
new style
Therefore, the next president will need - according to The Hill - to adopt a new style of leadership and choose carefully, and early on, situations in which a deepening of the crisis can only be avoided through the quiet exercise of pressure and diplomacy by the world's only "superpower", as is the case. For example, in Libya, Syria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen.
Biden will also need to rethink how foreign aid and support can be used more effectively to promote stability in fragile states, after his predecessor Trump was utterly reluctant to provide any support of this kind.
The priority for using foreign aid in Central America's "Northern Triangle" countries, for example (Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador) should be to boost long-term employment opportunities.
A final consideration, the newspaper believes, that the incoming Biden administration must take into account in dealing with the problem of failed states, is not to expect or seek Washington "alone" to stop the bleeding of failed states.
In the absence of effective action by the United Nations, due to both China and Russia exercising their right to veto, collective action with like-minded democracies could be an alternative, as during the past four years America has been the "missing link" due to President Trump's contempt for multilateral support efforts. Which requires close coordination with allies.
The next president - the newspaper concludes - should include on the agenda of his "democracy summit" knowledge of how developed countries in the world can work to address the causes that plague countries into failure. This coordinated and collective action must include strengthening democratic institutions in developing countries and creating An effective response mechanism to deal with any crisis that afflicts this or that country.