Failed States and Nation Building

The rise of a centralized state that commands real authority throughout its territory can be seen as the reverse of the process by which a state loses its authority and gradually crumbles into a “failed state.” A key aspect of state building involves establishing the internal bonds that make it possible for a disparate congery of smaller-scale groups to unite within a larger framework. Both formation of larger social units from smaller ones and its reverse, disintegration, have been studied intensively from the perspective of cultural and social evolution.

The main goal of the workshop is to set the future agenda for integrating evolutionary insights with policy-oriented research on failed states and nation-building.

Recent research indicates that different evolutionary histories can constrain present-day political trajectories. For example, the “AfPak” region (Afghanistan and Pakistan) is cross-cut by three Eurasian zones with very different histories and cultures: (1) areas that developed under the influence of the Great Eurasian Steppe (“Turkistan”), (2) mountainous regions with a very rare incidence of state-level forms of social organization throughout its history (“Pashtunistan”), and (3) the area belonging to the imperial belt of Eurasia, characterized by a precocious development of cities and states and a long history of large empires (“Pakistan”).

This observation raises a number of questions related to both policy and research. Should the same, generic approach to state-building (or preventing state failure) be used in all three regions? If not, how should policies differ between these cultural areas? Should we aim at building a modern democratic state in all cultural areas?Alternatively, might a loose confederation, with most decisions delegated to the local level, sometimes be a better solution?

To address these questions the Evolution Institute will hold a workshop that will bring together academic experts from such diverse fields as evolution/complexity and social/political science with actual practitioners — diplomats, policy makers, and specialists on the AfPak area. The main goal of the workshop is to set the future agenda for integrating evolutionary insights with policy-oriented research on failed states and nation-building. The workshop will be held on the campus of Stanford University in December, 2011.