State Failure and Regional Insecurity: A NUPI and PRIO Strategic Collaboration Program

The project will bring together researchers from PRIO and NUPI to explore the linkages between state failure and regional security issues. The program will be founded on four case studies, focusing on Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Georgia and the Horn of Africa. They will focus on regional aspects of a state's failure to maintain monopoly of violence, investigating both outward spillovers (from a failing state to its neighbours) and inward spillovers (from the surrounding countries into t he failing state). Furthermore, the role of state and non-state actors will be examined, as will the relationships between internal and external actors. Finally, the different ways in which global forces affect individual countries and conflicts will be t aken into account. The cases will be analyzed using perspectives from the research fields of state failure and of regional security complexes. Detailed case studies will allow us to trace out underlying motivations and causal relationships that drive the conflicts. Moreover, through comparison of the cases (case-by-case and cross-regionally) we will seek to identify differences and similarities that relate to the impact of both regional and broader global forces on state failure. A series of seminars, wor kshops and conferences (8 in total) will be held through the project period. Once a year, the program's reference group, consisting of five internationally renowned scholars, will meet with the researchers to discuss findings and theoretical implications.