Fragile states and the return of Native Administration

Abstract

Over the last several years, a number of ideas relating to working in “difficult environments”, or engaging countries described as “poor performers” or “fragile states” have entered policy discourse. They attempt to describe the challenge for development at a time of global instability and the widespread occurrence of state failure. In content, these ideas are similar and are referred to here as the fragile state, or fragile state discourse. Donor government thinking on reconstructing fragile states is regarded as the cutting-edge of current policy. Besides exploring this discourse however, this paper draws out its reliance on assumptions and dispositions developed within the fold of liberal imperialism; in particular the colonial practice of indirect rule or Native Administration. Rather than being essentially new, fragile state discourse is more a contemporary re-inscription of earlier approaches to the problem of ungoverned space. Given the historic failure of such technologies to reverse the rejection of Western tutelage, at a time of indefinite war and deepening global insurgency, a critical examination of this archaeology is both pressing and relevant.