ABSTRACT: Over the past two decades, the term “failed state” has been popularised among both academics and policy-makers. This work seeks to adequately provide for the historical and cultural background driving the term and its theoretical and practical implications. However, the bulk of this work is concerned with questioning the analytical validity of the term “failed state” and argued that its creation was inextricably related to a phenomenon typical of the beginning and the end of the Cold War: the securitisation of underdevelopment. Accordingly, the concept of failed state is analysed as a discursive construction rather than an analytical tool.
KEYWORDS: Failed States, Securitisation, Development, Discourse, Policy-Making