Fragile states: an urgent challenge for EU foreign policy

Around a quarter of the world's states are classified as 'fragile', meaning that they generally suffer from weak governance and persistent poverty while being prone to conflict. State fragility is a particularly urgent challenge for EU foreign policy, partly because a large proportion of fragile states can be found in Europe's extended neighbourhood, stretching from West Africa via the Middle East to Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and partly because of the EU's strong commitment to more effective development policies around the world.

This FRIDE working paper analyses the global drivers of state fragility – such as natural resource competition, demographic growth and climate change – which will likely intensify in the coming years, as well as the changing types of fragile states which range from middle income countries to much poorer ones. It also explains how emerging powers are playing an increasingly important role in fragile states, and calls on the EU to further join up the disparate instruments of its foreign policy to better tackle state fragility.