The American newspaper "The Hill" said that in the same way that the "Democracy Summit" that President-elect Joe Biden will hold after his inauguration is heralded to renew Washington's commitment to spreading democracy in the world and confirm its alliance with Western democracies, it is also important that the government develop The next strategy is to deal with states that are the exact opposite, ie, "failed states".

The newspaper considers - in a report by the researcher and former diplomat David Tafuri - 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 in the world, and the countries that were already in a continuous decline towards failure - both due to the lack of A legitimate government, armed conflict, popular discontent, mass violations of human rights, or humanitarian crises - the pandemic has pushed it to the brink.

She adds that when a country collapses, this constitutes one of the greatest threats to the security and prosperity of the United States in the future for three considerations, the first of which 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.

The third and most worrying consideration for Washington - according to the newspaper - is that failed states are working to empower the opponents of the United States in the world, as is the case of Iran, for example, which uses its unstable neighbor Iraq as a battlefield 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 enable authoritarian leaders to serve its 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, including first bringing the United States back into the diplomatic arena.

The US leadership during Donald Trump's presidential term - the newspaper adds - was absent from many of the thorny world crises, as the slogan "America First" raised by Trump was a "chaotic and contradictory approach" that did not amount to a coherent vision of leadership, and was only an excuse not to do diplomatic work. The hard work required when there is no clear and immediate return in favor of the person of the president.

The newspaper considered that the slogan "America First" raised by Trump is a "chaotic 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 to choose carefully, early on, the cases in which the deepening of the crisis can be avoided only through the quiet exercise of pressure and diplomacy by the only "superpower" in the world, as is the case For example, in Libya, Syria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen.

Biden will also need to rethink how to use foreign aid and support more effectively to promote stability in fragile states, after his predecessor Trump was completely reluctant to provide any such support.

The priority of using foreign aid in the countries of the "Northern Triangle" of Central America (for example, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador) should be to enhance long-term employment.

A final consideration, according to the newspaper, that the next Biden administration should take into account in dealing with the problem of failed states, is that it should not expect or seek Washington “on its own” to stop the bleeding of failed states.

In the absence of effective action by the United Nations, with China and Russia both exercising their vetoes, collective action with like-minded democracies could be an alternative, where for the past four years America has been the "missing link" due to President Trump's disdain for multilateral support efforts. Which requires close coordination with allies.

The next president - the newspaper concludes - must include on the agenda of his "democracy summit" how the developed countries of the world can work to address the causes that plunge countries into failure, and 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.