From Holden:

Foreign Policy magazine’s Failed State Index includes Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq in the top ten.

In its second annual “failed states” index, Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace concluded that Sudan [#1] is the country under the most severe stress because of violent internal conflict.

[snip]

Each country was given a score based on data from numerous available sources. A “failing state” was described as one in which the government does not have effective control of its territory, is not perceived as legitimate by a significant portion of its population, does not provide domestic security or basic public services to its citizens and lacks a monopoly on the use of force.

[snip]

“For Iraq [#4], the index category that worsened most was human flight,” the report said. “The exodus of Iraq’s professional class has accelerated, leaving the country without the trained citizens it needs to staff important posts.”

Iraq’s instability was underscored in a State Department report last week that said fully 30% of all terrorist attacks worldwide last year occurred in Iraq.

In terms of available human resources, Afghanistan [#10] faces a somewhat different problem from Iraq, the report said. It pointed out that while educated Afghan exiles have been slow to return following the fall of the Taliban in 2001, overwhelmingly poor Afghan refugees have returned in large numbers from Iran and Pakistan.

“The result is a capital city busting at the seams but short of trained administrators, the report said.

Pakistan [#9] is another troubled country, the report said. Its inability to police the tribal areas near the Afghan border helped lead to one of the sharpest declines in overall score of any country on the index.

Click Read More for the entire Failed States Index.

From Holden:

1. Sudan

2. Democratic Republic of Congo

3. Ivory Coast

4. Iraq

5. Zimbabwe

6. Chad

6. (Tie) Somalia

8. Haiti

9. Pakistan

10. Afghanistan

11. Guinea

11. (Tie) Liberia

13. Central African Republic

14. North Korea

15. Burundi

16. Yemen

16. (Tie) Sierra Leone

18. Myanmar

19. Bangladesh

20. Nepal

21. Uganda

22. Nigeria

22. (Tie) Uzbekistan

24. Rwanda

25. Sri Lanka

26. Ethiopia

27. Colombia

28. Kyrgyzstan

29. Malawi

30. Burkina Faso

31. Egypt

32. Indonesia

33. Syria

33. (Tie) Kenya

35. Bosnia-Herzegovina

36. Cameroon

37. Angola

37. Togo

39. Bhutan

39. Laos

41. Mauritania

42. Tajikistan

43. Russia

44. Niger

45. Turkmenistan

46. Guinea-Bissau

47. Cambodia

47. (Tie) Dominican Republic

49. Papua New Guinea

50. Belarus

51. Guatemala

52. Equatorial Guinea

52. (Tie) Iran

54. Eritrea

55. Serbia-Montenegro

56. Bolivia

57. China

57. (Tie) Moldova

59. Nicaragua

60. Georgia