The dilemma of the failed state thesis in post-9/11 world affairs
IntroductionThe increased interest in the "failed state" phenomenon can be traced back to events that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 (Wesley-Smith, 2004:4-5). However, the changes that were brought about by the collapse of Communism soon exposed the vulnerabilities of weaker states across the globe. The term failed state was first coined to describe a number of humanitarian disasters that took place in the 1990s in places such as Somalia, Haiti, Cambodia, Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor and the Great Lakes region of Africa, and particularly Rwanda (Wesley-Smith, 2004:5; Sur, 2006:1). Theorists were mainly concerned with the often tragic humanitarian consequences of state failure that included refugee pro-