New List of 60 States "On the Brink"

Foreign Policy and the Fund for Peace have just come out with a report listing 60 states around the world they say are verging on collapse. Ivory Coast earns top dishonors. No, cynics, the U.S. is not listed, though our protectorate Iraq does come in at #4.

I must admit to a bit of a headache from squinting to read the chart, which should otherwise be the highlight of the report. Nevertheless, the report and graphic are worth a glance.

Credit to Johan Norberg's blog for the link. Oddly Norberg, who rightfully oozes cred in libertarian/globalization circles, makes a point of noting that "we should not just worry about authoritarian states." However, as far as I can tell, all but maybe one or two of the sixty states are widely viewed as authoritarian (like Saudi Arabia, Russia or Rwanda) or are under the sphere of influence of authoritarian states (like Lebanon or Belarus). So if Norberg's point is that we should not just worrry about these states, I suppose he may be right. But this report seems an odd provocation to such a conclusion.