Robert I. Rotberg, “The new nature of nation-State failure”, The Washington Quarterly, vol. 25, No. 3 (Summer 2002).

Robert I. Rotberg, “The new nature of nation-State failure”, The Washington Quarterly, vol. 25, No. 3 (Summer 2002).

• Overall this is an amazing source for a description of the characteristics and behavior of a failed state, as well as the factors contributing to such state failure.
• "Nation-states fail because they can no longer deliver positive political goods to their people. Their governments lose legitimacy and, in the eyes and hearts of a growing plurality of its citizens, the nation-state itself becomes illegitimate" (85).
• Failed states are at least partially defined by violence, of which demands for autonomy or regime change and enduring character is more critical to the definition than the intensity of that violence.
• The definition of a failed state depends on the actual control of territory within its borders. A truly failed state will only have limited control over large swathes of its territory, often limited to the areas around capitals (86).
• Defines the role of nation-states as delivering positive political goods (e.g., healthcare, security, legal systems, etc.) to the populace. The failed state is thus defined by an inability to deliver these goods, specifically security (87).
• Not all the states classified as failing in 2002 (Burundi, DRC, Sudan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Angola, Afghanistan) fit all of the criteria mentioned. To be classified a state must just meet most of the criteria, esp. in terms of deficits in security provision and territorial control (91).
• State failure is an essentially human-created phenomenon, often the result of absolute corruption by ruling elites leading to an absence of basic services and resulting insurgent groups (94).
• Reconstructing failed state is insanely expensive, difficult, and doesn't always entirely work. It is much more efficient for the world to take steps to prevent weak states from becoming failed states than to fix failed states (95).
• Grants are preferential to loans when it comes to rebuilding and investing in states, as they create less panic or risk if someone screws up. 
• To do this donor states and investors should only rewards positive behaviors and make donations and aid contingent on reforms of certain key sectors.
• Direct Foreign Investment is also a great tool to help national stability by providing economic growth and employment, esp. in economically deprived regions. The world should decrease the barriers to FDI.